'Stubborn' police stations fail to deal with Gauteng crime wave

About half of the crimes committed in Gauteng take place in just 40 of the province’s police station precincts.

This was revealed by community safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane during the quarterly performance review session with the province’s law enforcement officials in Muldersdrift on the West Rand on Wednesday.

With about 478‚659 serious crimes reported in 2017/2018‚ Gauteng remains the crime hub of the country.

According to the crime statistics released by police minister Bheki Cele earlier this month‚ the nearly 500‚000 crimes was a 4.9 percentage point decrease from the previous period.

Nkosi-Malobane said that 40 of the province’s 142 police stations handled 50% of Gauteng’s crime.

She said that of these forty‚ eight were identified as “stubborn” – namely‚ Akasia‚ Ivory park‚ Tembisa‚ Kempton Park‚ Kagiso‚ Krugersdorp‚ Dobsonville and Honeydew. In these areas‚ police performance in combating crime was not improving.

“We are closely monitoring these areas through our intervention plan. We call them ‘stubborn’ because we are unable to really crack the performance in those areas. But we are still continuing with the bio-weekly sessions with those police stations - where they come in and account on issues where we have identified weaknesses‚” said Nkosi-Malobane.

“We have seen the murder rate increase by 3.2 percentage points as compared to the 2016-17 financial year. However‚ attempted murder has seen a decline of 8.4 percentage points. Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm has declined from 39‚684 [recorded incidents] in 2016/17 to 39‚552 in 2017/18.

“Common assault in general is still a concern in Gauteng. In 2016/17 Gauteng recorded 42‚083 [incidents] while in 2017/18 we recorded 43‚587‚” she added.

Robbery with aggravated circumstances was starting to show a decline from 53‚793 cases to 51‚707 in the 2017/18 financial year. Common robbery was also on a declining trajectory‚ from 17‚367 to 16‚984 in 2017/18.

“The number of sexual offences are worrying‚ from 9‚566 in 2016/17 to 10‚166 in 2017/18. This is a concern as many vulnerable groups such as women and children always find themselves in the receiving end of these heinous acts. All these crimes mentioned above are classified under contact crimes‚” Nkosi-Malobane said.

Commenting on a rape that allegedly took place at the Dros restaurant eatery in Silverton‚ Pretoria‚ on Saturday – in which a 20-year-old man allegedly raped a 7-year-old girl - the MEC said this was “unfortunate”.

“It’s unfortunate that despite efforts made by the department‚ violence against women and children continues. It’s good that the perpetrator was apprehended‚” she said.