COMMUNITY protest actions across the Northern Cape have been blamed for the sharp increase in the occurrence of crime in the Province.
This is according to the SAPS, which yesterday released the crime statistics for the Province.
The statistics paint a bleak picture of the occurrence of crime in the Northern Cape, with all contact crimes, except murder, showing an increase during the last year.
Last year, a total of 322 people were murdered in the Province - almost half as a result of “arguments or misunderstandings”, with 80 as a result of domestic violence - while 1 121 people were raped, including 81 males.
A total of 1 700 crimes in the Province were committed against children and 5 467 crimes were against women.
The statistics for the Northern Cape show that all contact crimes (including sexual offences, attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, common assault, common robbery and robbery with aggravating circumstances), with the exception of murder, increased from the 2017/18 financial year to the 2018/19 financial year.
While South Africa saw an increase in the national murder rate, the Northern Cape is one of only two provinces in the country where the number of murders decreased, compared to last year.
The Northern Cape and the Free State were the only two provinces that showed a decrease, with the number of murders in this Province decreasing by 5.3%, to 322 during 2018/19 from 340 during 2017/18.
The major causative factor of murders in the Northern Cape was arguments/misunderstandings (112 cases), followed by domestic violence (80 cases) and armed robberies (eight cases).
Three police murders were reported in the Northern Cape during 2018/19.
Contact crimes increased by 511 case (2.9%), contact-related crimes by 322 cases (10.4%), property-related crimes by 620 cases (4.8%) and other serious crimes by 647 cases (7%).
The root causes of these crimes were noted as community protest actions running up to local government elections and national elections over the last 10 years, the increase in labour-related strikes (in the JTG, Namakwa and Frances Baard clusters), instability in the educational sector (JTG cluster 2012/13), socio-economic challenges (substance abuse) and the mushrooming of foreign-owned tuck shops (with regard to robberies and thefts).
The highest occurrence of contact crimes were reported between Friday and Sunday (73.75%), in the time frame of 6pm to 2.59am (54.2%). Of the place of occurence, 32.5% took place inside residences, 32.5% on public roads/streets and 25.5% in open spaces (veld).
With regard to murders, knives were the most prevalent weapon used (48.1%), followed by firearms (4.9%) and stones and bricks (4.2%).
Attempted Murder increased by 1.8% (+52 cases), assault GBH increased by 0.9% (+67 cases), common assault increased by 2.4% (+106 cases), common robbery increased by 9.6% (+123 cases), robbery aggravating increased by 8.6% (+141 cases), carjacking increased by 5.4% (+2 cases), robbery at residential premises decreased by -1.3% (-2 cases) and robbery at non-residential premises increased by 11.0% (+33 cases).
The statistics revealed that there was one incident of robbery cash in transit, where robbers attacked Fidelity security guards who were transporting Sassa money. The Fidelity security guards were attacked while off-loading money from the security vehicle. Two security guards were injured by the robbers. The robbers took cash to the amount of R40 000.
There were no reported incidents of bank robbery.
Sexual offences increased by 2.6% (+40 cases) and rape increased by 1.9% (+21 cases). The root causes were noted as socio-economic challenges (substance abuse), environmental design (like bushy and overgrown vegetation and poor street lighting), as well as the deterioration of the moral fibre of the community (crimes committed within the family circle).
The statistics indicated that the victim and the suspect were known to each other in 79.8% of reported cases.
With regard to violent crimes at farms and smallholdings, the statistics indicated that these crimes were committed “sporadically”.
The two reported incidents during June 2019 occurred in Strydenburg and Kakamas respectively while the incident during July 2019 occurred in Batlharos. In the three incidents there were four victims that included two white males one white female and one black female. The victims were an 81-year-old male, a 51-year-old male, a 43-year-old female and one female whose age was not specified.
One arrest was made in the three incidents. The arrested suspect was the farm foreman.
Drug-related crime decreased by -31.5% (-1 750 cases). The statistics indicated that the decrease in the arrest of drug-related crime could partly be attributed to the Constitutional Court judgment on September 18, 2018 on the private use of cannabis. The Constitutional Court judgment brought about changes as far as the lawful possession, cultivation and consumption of cannabis is concerned. The arrests for drug-related crime, specifically cannabis. has therefore decreased, the report indicated.
The report referred to the impact of protest actions in the Northern Cape during 2018/19.
“There were many incidents of protest actions during the 2018/19 financial year period as a result of communities protesting against high municipal tariffs, alleged corruption, lack of service delivery and unemployment. While the communities were protesting they also took the opportunity to commit other crimes. The highest reporting crimes registered were burglary at business premises (206 cases), malicious damage to property (191 cases), public violence (110 cases), business robbery (45 cases), assault GBH (18 cases), arson (11 cases), theft other (4 cases), common robbery (3 cases) and attempted murder (3 cases).
“Illicit miners also protested which gave rise to malicious damage to property and public violence incidents,” the report stated.