Serious crime levels decline

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Created on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 11:28

The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster has revealed that serious crime levels have declined by 5% in the last three years. The cluster, led by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe, addressed the media on Sunday, giving an update of the cluster's ongoing work.

Radebe said that for the first time in the period under review, the murder rate had dropped by 6.5%, attempted murder by 12.2% and sexual offences by 4.4%. "These decreases were achieved through various interventions, including proper planning, police visibility and coordination with other security agencies. Whilst we note a decrease in sexual offences, we remain seriously concerned about the increase in rape cases," he said.

In an effort to tackle the issue, he said they had begun to reintroduce the South African Police Service Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units to focus on crimes among vulnerable groups. "We have also attended to improving infrastructure such as Victim Friendly Rooms at police stations, Thuthuzela Care Centres, Domestic Violence Shelters and Places of Safety throughout the country. "All these are done in an effort to ensure the centrality of the victim, particularly a vulnerable victim," he said.

Radebe highlighted that they noted a recent increase in ATM bombings. "Intensive detective and intelligence work, supported by various agencies, is currently underway to hunt, arrest and prosecute those responsible for the crimes," he said.

In the fight against organised crime, he said that the Directorate of Priority Investigations (Hawks) had since arrested the country's 50 most wanted criminals. He said that unit had also recently arrested over 20 rhino poachers.

Radebe said that while they were encouraged by the declining crime trends, "we remain concerned about the levels of crime, particularly crimes against women, children and the elderly." He reiterated that they would "spare neither strength nor effort" in ensuring that everyone in the country was safe.

The recent Victims of Crime Survey (2011) indicates that victims of crime are beginning to see results in the fight against crime and the improvement in the treatment of victims.

Radebe commented that "Among other things, the survey found that over 40% of households felt that the level of both violent and non-violent crime had decreased in their area of residence during the period 2008 to 2010," he said. He further said of those surveyed, about 60% of households were satisfied with the way police and courts were doing their work.

The 2011 survey also revealed that 32.1% of households recorded that levels of crime had increased, compared to 2007 where 57.1% felt that crime had increased. With regard to personal safety, 88.2% and 27% felt safe walking in the areas during the day and at night respectively, compared to 2007 when the response was 76% and 23% respectively.

Radebe said that the Victim Surveys will continue on an annual basis under the auspices of Statistics South Africa to monitor perceptions of the public and victims of crime. "The results of these surveys will help government to develop targeted interventions in line with what the people in South Africa feel are areas of serious concern supported by the trends."

"The country-wide situation regarding the outstanding and backlog cases per court level has continued to improve. As at the end of December 2011, we had succeeded in reducing the backlog numbers to the lowest number of backlog cases 32,902 (15.9%) than in the past five years," Radebe said. During the period April 2011 to December 2011, backlog courts removed 16,436 cases from the court rolls, with 77 additional backlog courts functioning at present (55 regional and 22 district courts).

"The Case Backlog Reduction intervention is yielding results. Between April 2009 and December 2011, a total of 40,298 were removed from the court rolls as a result of the additional regional and district backlog criminal courts. A total of 134 new prosecutors who graduated from the Justice College this past Friday will be deployed all over the country in order to further increase capacity around our courts. The impact will be the speedy finalisation of increased number of cases which has been a challenge in giving effect to provide access to justice," he added.

For the period April to December 2012, 327,818 cases were finalised. The High courts had a conviction rate on average of 84.4% (752 cases); Regional Courts 74.2% (21,886 cases) and district courts 90.5% (185,884 cases).

"A focus area for 2012 will be increased attention to increase the case finalisation rate at all court levels in conjunction with all role players. Engagements are underway between the Chief Justice and the Heads of Court to ensure that norms and standards are used throughout the country in driving and improving performance in courts. This is consistent with tenets of the Constitution with regard to speedy justice," said Radebe.

Meanwhile, Radebe said the strengthening of partnerships within the Criminal Justice System will remain a priority this year. These partnerships, he said, will include communities, role-players within government, business, interest groups, media, municipalities, religious and youth formations as well as international law enforcement agencies.

"As part of improving service delivery, we are in the process of reviewing our 10111 operations in order to ensure the efficiency of the system. This may include the revised deployment of resources in order to make the system more effective. High-tech equipment, vehicles and other tools procured during the 2010 FIFA World Cup continue to be used to safeguard all people within the country."

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