Contact crimes worsened in Gauteng in first three months of this year

Assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, common assault and aggravated robbery contributed 33% to overall crime in Gauteng in the first three months of this year.

This is according to Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Elias Mawela. The statistics compare lockdown level 3 in 2021 with lockdown level 1 in 2022.

Robbery with aggravating circumstances has seen an increase of 11%, translating to 6,342 cases. Mawela said this was commonly known as “the crime of fear”.

“There are usually additional charges added during the commission of this crime, which subjects the victim to suffer multiple trauma and prejudice.”

Top on the list of trio crimes is the hijacking of trucks and passenger vehicles.

Mawela said vehicles in Gauteng are hijacked for the following reasons:

• Uber taxis are taken for transport purposes and abandoned by those who do not have transport late at night;
• old cars are taken for selling spare parts or to rebuild other cars;
• luxury cars are taken for use in the commission of crimes such as cash-in-transit and house and business robberies; 
• illegal exports; and
• trucks and delivery vans are hijacked to steal the cargo.

All contact crimes in the province have increased:

• murder — 1,403 cases, an increase of 45.2%;
• attempted murder — 1,389 cases, an increase of 31.7%;
• assault GBH — 9,687 cases, an increase of 16.4%;
• common assault — 12,280 cases, an increase of 14.7%;
• common robbery — 3,772 cases, an increase of 7.6%; and
• sexual offences — 2,921 cases, an increase of 11.3%.

Business robberies, however, have seen a 3.7% decrease, which amounts to 60 fewer cases reported when compared to the same period in 2020/2021.

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