'Robberies impair SA's psyche'
2007-07-03 18:26
Pretoria - Aggravated robberies have had a devastating effect on the psyche of the nation, said Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula after the annual release of police crime statistics in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Armed robbery increased by 4.6%, with the biggest proportion being (72.7%) street robberies, where dangerous weapons were used, the police report shows.
"Given that those robberies are accompanied by blood-letting where heavy calibre firearms are used by organised criminal gangs and that innocent bystanders are often caught in the cross-fire, and the fact that these incidents happen in broad daylight, on our roads and streets and around banks and shopping malls, they've had a devastating effect on the psyche of the nation."
Nqakula also said that a study was underway to determine why two-thirds of all serious and violent crimes happened between people who knew each other and why there was so much violent crime in South Africa.
He said that although crime levels in South Africa continued to drop, the government was concerned that crimes continued to be rife and that the crime rate continued to be high.
Substance abuse blamed
"The fact that instances of serious and violent crime are very high is disconcerting and unacceptable," said Nqakula.
He said the decrease in contact crime, which involved physical injury, was below the seven percent to 10% reduction they had hoped to achieve.
He said serious and violent social crimes took place mainly at weekends when alcohol and substances were abused.
The majority of crimes happened during the holiday months of December and January with the lowest crime rates recorded during the winter months of June and July.
He denied there was a back-up at forensic laboratories, saying that of the 52 486 items received by the laboratories in the past financial year only 7 036 were outstanding.
"That can't be translated from 52 000, to a massive backlog."
He said the level of co-operation between the government and big business was "very high" and he added that "it is a partnership that works extremely well".
- SAPA