More than 132,527 cases of robbery with aggravating circumstances (house robbery and hijacking) were reported in the 2015/16 Crime Stats report released by the SA Police Service in early September. This up by 2.7% from last year’s 129,045 reported cases.
According to StatsSA’s Community Survey 2016, on average 7.5% of all South African households say they have been victims of crime.
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Broken down by province, 9.7% of Western Cape households say they were victims of crime, while Gauteng is second at 9.1% of households; third is North West (7.6%) and fourth is Mpumalanga (7.4%).
Provinces below the national average are KwaZulu-Natal (6.9%), Northern Cape (6.8%), Eastern Cape (6.2%), Free State (6%) and Limpopo (4.2%).
Using reported crime stats from the SAPS, CrimeStatsSA classifies the country’s worst precinct as Mitchell’s Plain, with 19,499 crimes reported across all categories: Common robbery made up 754 cases and robbery with aggravating circumstances 1,347 incidents. On the other side of the city in Cape Town Central – where the Cape Town Central City Improvement District estimates the combined minimum value of planned and proposed developments for the node to be more than R2bn – is the second-worst crime hotspot reporting 17,785 crimes, and third in terms of common robbery with 931 cases reported. Johannesburg Central is worst in the category of robbery with aggravating circumstances, tallying up 1,694 reported incidents in the past year.
On the other side of the city – in one of the country’s fastest-growing residential markets – Honeydew experienced SA’s fifth-highest crime rate (12,889 cases) and is sixth when it comes to robbery with aggravating circumstances, reporting 1,076 incidents.
Total crimes: 10 worst precincts 2016
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Common robbery: 10 worst precincts 2016
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Robbery with aggravating circumstances: 10 worst precincts 2016
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SAPS crime stats
- Robbery with aggravating circumstances: 132,527 up from 129,045 the year before
- Common robbery: 54,110 cases down from 54,927 the year before
- Robbery at residential premises: 20,820 cases up from 20,281 the year before
- Burglary at residential premises: 250,606 cases down from 253,716
While certain crimes have decreased considerably in the past 10 years, robbery with aggravating circumstances has risen from a multi-year low of 101,039 cases in 2010/11 to 132,527 cases in 2015/16 – a rise of 23.7% in five years! Frankly, South Africa’s crime stats are disheartening and crimes committed against our countrymen and women in their homes – where they should feel safe and secure – are scariest of all.
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Let’s all make an active effort to join and support our local community policing forums, neighbourhood watches and Facebook community pages, and be the eyes and ears on behalf of our neighbours. If, according to the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, the main contributing factors to crime in SA are that violence has been normalised and that our criminal justice system is viewed as corrupt, ineffective and inefficient, it is up to every citizen to protect themselves and their community through active intelligence gathering and dissemination. Let’s get a step ahead of criminals once and for all.
