Police have crime under control claims Phiyega

National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega says despite the rise in certain crimes, South Africa remains a stable country. Image: SACSIS

"Police are in control. The fact that we arrested 1.7m people in the past year alone says a lot. Policing is a highly controlled environment with clear standing orders. Yes mistakes are made but they tend to be the ones that are flagged by the media," Phiyega said.

She was reacting to criticism that police have lost the war on crime during a business briefing hosted by The New Age. This follows the release of 2013/14 crime stats last week.

The statistics, which cover the period from April last year to March this year, showed that murder is up by 5%, with an additional 809 murders. The Western Cape showed the highest increase in murder rising by 12.8%, from 2,580 to 2,909. It is followed by Gauteng with an increase of 11.2%, from 2,997 to 3,333 while in the Northern Cape murders were up by 6.3%, from 412 to to 438.

The statistics showed that sexual offences had decreased by 5.6% with a fall in all nine provinces. Sexual offences in the North West showed a decrease of 12.2% decrease, from 5,521 to 4,850. Gauteng sexual offences decreased by 10.3% from 12,288 to 11,021, followed by Free State with a decrease of 8.3% from 5,252 to 4,814.

Robberies from homes were up by 7.4%, with 1,334 more cases than the previous year while business robberies were up by 13.7% with 2,238 more attacks. Car hijacking was also up by 12.3% with 1,231 more incidents than last year.

SA remains stable says Phiyega

Police Minister Nathi Nhleko says that members of the community generally know who the perpetrators of crime are and need to inform the police so that these criminals can be arrested, detained and sentenced. Image: GCIS

Phiyega said the fact that the country has investors wanting to bring business to the country shows that South Africa is stable despite the increase in certain crimes.

"They know this a stable country with law enforcement agencies doing their work," said Phiyega, who was flanked by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko and his deputy Maggie Sotyu.

"Fighting crime is our business. It doesn't matter where it is, we will arrest a criminal. We will arrest our own if necessary," she said.

Phiyega said society should assist the police and not make it difficult for the officials to do their work as she urged members of the public to partner with the police in the fight against crime.

"Somewhere, someone knows something about crime in their communities and they were to act on that information and inform the police, our success rates would be even higher," said Nhleko.

He dismissed suggestions that South Africa was like a war zone. "We are faced with a particular social problem. We have high levels of violence and aggression in our society and we need to address that," he said.

Phiyega also announced that the police will be launching the festive season campaign earlier this year in the wake of a spate of mall robberies in recent weeks.