Police commended for their role on crime drop

Speaking to SAnews following the release of the national crime statistics on Thursday by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, Dr Hamadziripi Tamukamoyo, Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies' Crime and Justice Programme, noted the decline in crimes such as car hijackings, bank robberies, ATM bombings and cash-in-transit heists.

Dealing with some of these crimes required intelligence gathering and sharing of information between stakeholders, he said.

"...in that regard we can commend police. They are doing a good job in terms of collaborating and intelligence gathering," he said.

Tamukamoyo pointed out that the rise in business robberies, by 7.5%, was particularly worrying. He said small businesses were a major source of employment for the poor. However, some could not afford the necessary security to protect themselves and would find it hard to grow if they became the targets of robbers.

He added that while it was good that there would be a strategy to deal with business robberies, the success of the strategy would rely on its implementation.

Earlier, Mthethwa had announced that a strategy was being finalised to combat and reduce robberies at small businesses. He said there would be engagement - through the Civilian Secretariat of Police - with the relevant parties to ensure the implementation of the strategy soon.

Tamukamoyo said he hoped that in future the statistics would be more detailed and also released on a more regular basis.

Crime Line has welcomed the drop in certain categories of crime, but said that the rise in drug-related crimes by 15.6% was a concern.

"The latest statistics echo our call for a renewed and multi-partner effort to fight the scourge of drugs in communities. Crime Line is currently working on a large-scale campaign to bring the relevant stakeholders together to actively fight the scourge," said Crime Line Co-ordinator Marisa Oosthuizen.