CRIME STATS | Murder in SA has increased by 11.5%

Murder in SA increased by 11.5% during the first quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year, police minister Bheki Cele said on Friday while presenting the quarterly crime statistics. 

Cele said 6,424 people were killed in the first quarter, an increase of 664 compared with the same period last year. At that time the country was in lockdown levels one and two.

The main causes of murder were arguments and misunderstandings, retaliations and revenge, and vigilantism.

Cele said the stations that reported the highest murder rates were Umlazi in Durban and Plessislaer in Pietermaritzburg, in KwaZulu-Natal, and Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. There were 221 murders combined.

He said 18 police officers were killed during this period, a drop by 13 from last year.

Firearms are three times more likely to be the weapon of choice in all the reported murders, with 2,766 people shot dead.

In KZN, firearms were used in 912 murders, followed by Gauteng with 697 and 498 in the Western Cape.

Police are also seeing a large number of multiple murders — where one person is responsible for more than one death — with 284 dockets opened for 664 victims.

KZN had the highest recorded multiple murders, said Cele, followed by Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.

LISTEN HERE: 

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.