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Crime stats show local police are not so bad

 

Judging by the crime statistics that were released earlier this week, the Vhembe region needs to sort out its sexual offenders and common robbers. Whereas the rest of the figures seem to be fairly much “under control”, the number of sexual assaults has shown a steep increase over the past decade, as well as cases of burglaries at households.

Statistics are often difficult to interpret, and the crime statistics released by the SA Police Service are no different. The saying goes: “One hair on your head is perfectly acceptable, but one hair in your soup not.” As far as crimes such as murder and rape are concerned, any number is unacceptably high.

At a quick glance, however, the various police stations in the Vhembe area did not fare too badly over the past decade. Some may argue that the bar is not extremely high, but, overall, improvements can be seen in many areas. If it were an exam where the positives were set off against the negatives, they would probably all have passed.

To analyse the crime statistics properly will take an immense amount of time. We did not have that much time and opted to focus only on three police stations, namely Makhado, Thohoyandou and Musina.

Makhado

Only six murders were reported for 2017/18, which is two down from the previous year. The number of attempted murders reported is 15, which may be down from the previous year, but shows an 87% increase, judged by the figure 10 years ago. The big “culprit”, however at this station is the number of robberies with aggravating circumstances (123). In all fairness, this figure is down from 150 the previous year and 192 the year before, but over a decade, such robberies have increased by 284%.

In the 2017/18 period, 37 cases of robberies at residential premises were reported, up from 22 the previous year. Over a decade, this type of crime showed a 311% increase. Robberies at non-residential premises were slightly down (24 from 34), but over the past decade this figure increased by 500%.

The Makhado police seem to have some success with cases of burglaries at residential premises, but 269 cases (vs 352 the year before) might still be considered problematic.

One figure that has shown a tremendous increase over the past couple of years is the number of crimes detected because of police action. These are crimes discovered following police actions, such as roadblocks.

In the previous year, the police made 21 arrests for the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition (up from 11). In total, 188 cases of people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs were reported (up from 174). Judged over a 10-year period, these figures have increased by 482%.

Thohoyandou

Thohoyandou clearly has no shortage of sexual predators. No fewer than 225 cases of rape were reported (up from 183), with 16 cases of sexual assault.

The Thohoyandou police station reported 48 murders in 2017/18, one fewer than the previous year but still very high. This station reported 5,3% of the Limpopo Province’s murders (911 in total). Robbery with aggravating circumstances also went to an all-time high with 651 cases at this police station.

Another disturbing trend at Thohoyandou is the number of car hijackings. This went up from 15 to 53 in 2017/18. Ten years ago, in 2008, the number of car hijackings reported was only one. Robberies at residential premises also peaked at 229 in 2017/18, much higher than the 154 cases reported the previous year.

Drug-related crimes seem to be a problem in Thohoyandou, but the increase in reported cases was mostly due to police action. Thohoyandou reported 457 such cases, compared to the 337 the previous year. The police also reported 369 cases of people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Musina

Compared to the size of the Musina police station, the number of murders is quite high (11). This is down from 15 the previous year. The station also reported 15 cases of attempted murder and 271 cases of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Robbers who hijack cars also produce headaches for the Musina police, with no fewer than 10 cases reported in 2017/18. Robberies at residential premises are not uncommon, with 32 cases reported (up from 17 the previous year).

As far as burglaries are concerned (non-violent crime), non-residential premises seem to be the favourite targets. In 2017/18, the police investigated 182 such cases, up from 128 the year before. At non-residential premises, the figures were 102 vs the 94 the year before.

The Musina police had a fair amount of success in curbing crime through their various operations. The police made 390 arrests in drug-related crimes and 10 cases of illegal possession of firearms or ammunition were opened.

 

 

Date:15 September 2018

By: Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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