With the release of the national Crime Statistics for the Fourth Quarter of 2020/2021, from January to March 2021, we welcome the fact that contact crimes may have decreased by 8.5%. However, far too many other statistics show that our current policing strategy is ineffective.
The almost double-digit increase in aggravated robberies, such as carjacking, truck hijacking, residential robberies, business robberies and the targeting of courier service vans and trucks – in the last three months alone – is alarming and is cause for grave concern.
We cannot recover our economy and attract foreign direct investment to our shores when businesses are targeted by criminals and the police fail to ensure that South Africans and our visitors feel, and are kept safe.
Further to this, 11 people were killed in 10 incidents of murder, which occurred on farms and small-holdings. Rural safety remains of concern to the IFP, as we have on numerous occasions called on the Police Minister to ramp up the Rural Safety and Stock Theft Policing Units across the country.
Gauteng and the Western Cape continue to be crime hotspots in our country. Further intervention is required from the National Police, in order to support the Provincial Police in delivering on their mandate. Crimes in these provinces have become more severe.
With the identified murder hotspots being KZN, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Western Cape, we believe that social intervention (through the deployment of social workers in each ward) must compliment efforts by the Community Policing Fora and a comprehensive policing strategy, in preventing such heinous crimes from taking place.
It is imperative that we all work together with the Police to combat and to prevent crime from taking place in our most vulnerable communities and rural areas.
We call on the Minister of Police, Gen. Bheki Cele, as well as the National Police Commissioner, to urgently rethink and reconfigure the current policing strategy to focus on prevention, protection and implementation.
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Contact:
Zandile Majozi, MP
IFP Spokesperson on Police
073 052 9556
