Gauteng's crime central

To most Johannesburgers it's where they go to play, cycle, hike, or get into the country, but what they might not know is that the Honeydew area is Gauteng's most dangerous region.

The Honeydew policing cluster, according to statistics presented by the police to the portfolio committee on community safety, is witnessing a dramatic increase in violent crime.

Click here to see a 10-year crime report for Honeydew

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The report, which covers the financial year ending March 31, shows that in 26 categories of crime the Honeydew area was in the top four in 17 categories.

This cluster includes Diepsloot, Douglasdale, Florida, Honeydew, Randburg and Roodepoort. It also covers Cosmo City and informal settlements Zandspruit, Itsoseng, Diepsloot, Kya Sands, Pipeline, Durban Deep and Matholesville.

The population is 1.17-million.

According to the report, 245 people were murdered in the area, 9.4% more than the previous year.

The cluster had the highest number of house robberies in the province for the period, 980, an increase of 15%.

Robberies at non-residential premises went up by 28%, and attempted murders by 14%.

Honeydew cluster commander Lieutenant General Oswald Reddy admitted that policing the area posed a huge challenge, in particular because of a lack of crime intelligence.

But he said tactics such as identifying hot spots did not deal with the root causes of crime.

With good crime intelligence, Reddy said, syndicates could be identified and profiled and the supply chain detected, enabling the police to arrest the criminals before they even commit a crime.

Reddy said the high murder rate in his cluster had to do with illegal mining. The highest number of murders was recorded in the Roodepoort area.

Reddy conceded there was a lack of human resources to police the cluster effectively .

"Cosmo City is now a massive development and we are struggling to police that area because it outgrew the resources that were allocated for it.

"More crime is reported in Cosmo City than Honeydew. With the new development people do not know each other, so the criminals take advantage of that."

Criminologist Professor Anthony Minnaar said the Honeydew cluster's crime problem had to do with a myriad factors, from its proximity to Diepsloot to a lack of police training and resources.

Reddy said the police were working hard at building the confidence of the community and strengthening communication.

"We want to have street committees or block committees that work with the police."

Police have also started going to primary schools and high schools to tell pupils about the dangers of crime to prevent the younger generation joining criminal gangs.

Sandy Andrew, chairman of the community policing forum in Randburg, complained about the lack of co-operation from residents.

"People think it is never going to happen to them.

''We are educating people on how they can prevent crime by doing simple things.

"For example, we warn people not to leave stuff on car seats.

"We keep asking people to put their windows up when they go towards intersections and we tell them about closing windows when they go out.

"It is little things like that can help prevent crime."

Andrew said a business forum would be established to further intensify the fight against crime in the area.

Other stats at a glance

• There is one policeman in Gauteng for every 333 citizens.
• Contact crimes, including murder, fell by 32.6% over the past 10 years but increased by 4.3% in the past financial year.
• 20.5% of hijackings that took place on streets involved British American Tobacco vehicles. The vehicles were carrying cigarettes.
• Nearly one out of three truck hijackings was committed by criminals wearing police uniforms.
• Provincially, bank robberies are up 1000%. This is because only one case was reported in 2012/2013, while 11 cases were reported in 2013/2014.

Other hot spots you didn't know about

Honeydew, northern Joburg, tops the list of the most crime-ridden areas in Gauteng.

There were 980 cases of residential robbery recorded in the Honeydew policing area in the year to the end of March, an increase of 15%.

The precinct of Alexandra, which includes Sandton, also in northern Joburg, recorded 579 cases, an increase of nearly 10%.

Mondeor, southern Joburg, and Midrand, in the north, came third and fourth respectively.

The worst policing cluster for murder was Katlehong, East Rand, with 242 cases, an increase of 16.9%. Murder rates were also high in Roodepoort, western Joburg; Tembisa and Ivory Park, East Rand; and Jeppe, Joburg.

The Honeydew cluster had the highest number of attempted murder cases - 323, a 14.1% increase.

High rates of attempted murder were also recorded at the Alexandra, Jeppe, Kagiso (West Rand) and Roodepoort police stations.

According to the report, presented to the portfolio committee on community safety, the worst place for motorists was central Johannesburg, which recorded 2942 cases of vehicle theft (a decrease of 4.9%). Brooklyn (Pretoria), Booysens (Joburg), Roodepoort and Honeydew are also high-risk areas for car theft.

The Sunnyside, Pretoria, policing cluster had the highest incidence of theft from vehicles: 4996 cases, though this was 5.2% fewer than in the previous year.

The Germiston, East Rand, cluster had the highest number of truck hijackings, with 80 cases, an increase of 14.3%.

There were 3987 cases of robbery with aggravating circumstances in the Johannesburg CBD, a 27% rise.

Pretoria Central, Honeydew and Hillbrow recorded high rates of robbery with aggravating circumstances.