The high murder rates on the Cape Flats and townships in the City remain in the spotlight after they made up the majority of the top 5 stations with the highest murder rates in the country.
This was revealed during the release of the South African Police Services’ fourth quarterly crime statistics on Friday morning.
According to the latest statistics, Delft, Nyanga, Mfuleni, and Phillipi East are four of the top five police stations with the highest number of murders in the country between January and March.
Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal has been identified as the top station.
Delft, Mfuleni and Phillipi-East all saw significant increases in murder cases during this time, while Nyanga, despite recording a high number of cases, saw a 12,5% decrease when compared to the same period last year.
During a media briefing at the release of the quarterly crime statistics, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu noted that the Western Cape is once again one of the top four provinces with the highest murder rates.
This is in line with the comments South African billionaire, Johann Rupert, told the Trump administration at the White House earlier this week.
The other provinces that made the list are Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Mchunu has, however, noted that all provinces recorded decreases in murder incidents this quarter, except the Northern Cape, which saw a 2% increase.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that 90 people were killed and 110 others injured in gang-related incidents on the Cape Flats in April alone. That’s according to the chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron.
Cape Town crime fighters have therefore called for a commission of inquiry into gang violence in the city. While the SAPS and metropole policing authorities bolster deployment to these regions, the Cape Flats Safety Forum’s Abie Isaacs says communities are still being terrorised.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has, however, announced that the ministry will be adding more boots on the ground and improving the efficiency of the police’s forensic services to help curb crime.
Mchunu says there are currently 5500 police officer trainees at the various SAPS Academies who will be passing out in August and November and will be added to the force. At the same time, in efforts to improve forensic services, Mchunu says they are increasing the number of laboratories in the country.
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