While the quarterly crime statistics released on Tuesday show an increase of 3.4% in the national murder rate, the Western Cape has recorded a 14.1% reduction in its murder rate, the highest in the country.
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This is a decrease of 143 murders from 1 015 murders during the 4th quarter of the 2021/22 financial year to 872. This is also lower than the 904 murders which were recorded in 2020/21.
The MEC of Police Oversight and Community Safety Reagan Allen says in addition to this, it also confirms earlier sentiments that homicides in the LEAP (Law Enforcement Advancement Plan) areas decreased by 9% from 468 cases in 2021/22 to 428 in 2022/23, when compared with the same period of the previous year.
The areas where LEAP is deployed are Delft, Gugulethu, Harare, Khayelitsha (Site B policing precinct), Kraaifontein, Mfuleni, Mitchells Plain, Nyanga, Philippi East, and Samora Machel.
Other high crime areas in which they are deployed are Atlantis, Bishop Lavis and Hanover Park, along with Lavender Hill, Steenberg and Grassy Park.
These statistics demonstrate that while crime is still disturbingly high, the Western Cape Government’s Safety Plan is making a difference, and that the deployment of LEAP officers has an impact in the areas served.
Decreases in homicides were recorded in the following areas in which LEAP officers are deployed:
- Atlantis (77.8%)
- Bishop Lavis (21.7%)
- Harare (30.5%)
- Khayelitsha (26.5%)
- Kraaifontien (25.9%)
- Philippi (20.8%)
- Mfuleni (9.6%)
- Samora Machel (7.1%)
There is still concern in several LEAP areas however, where increases in homicides were recorded:
- Delft (11.1%)
- Gugulethu (29.6%)
- Mitchells Plain (29.2%)
- Nyanga (16.7%)
- Philippi East (27.3%)
Premier Alan Winde says despite this, the latest figures are encouraging.
They reflect the hard work our women and men in blue are doing in working with us as a united front to further beat back crime. Fighting crime is complex but we are demonstrating that by utilizing data, evidence, and technology, we can reduce crime.
He had admitted that the province still has a very long way to go, and that this momentum must now be sustained to keep fighting crime in all areas.
Keeping resident’s safe means offering them dignity. And we as the Western Cape Government, along with all of our important partners in law enforcement, will do everything possible to keep fighting crime.
MEC Allen says the “deliberate, direct, evidence-based and data-led deployment” of LEAP officers in the 13 priority areas is part of the reason why the Western Cape has experienced such a reduction in the murder rate.
LEAP is making the impact that we are committed to making. I am especially pleased that no area in our province is the murder capital of the country.
Allen has however expressed his alarm by the high increases in some of the other areas, with the murder rates in Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Philippi East now close to 30%, along with Delft and Nyanga that have been increasing on a regular basis.
This just makes us more determined to with aggression combat the ruthlessness of the heartless murderers in these communities. Our intention is to make the lives of criminals unbearable. They do not belong in our communities, instead they should be behind bars.
Gang related murders remain an ongoing concern in the Western Cape, with 110 of the 152 gang murders nationally occurring in this province.
