CAPE TOWN – Mitchells Plain Police Station has dropped into second place in the country after ranking first last quarter for drug-related crime.
This was revealed on Friday 22 May when acting police minister Firoz Cachalia released the fourth quarter’s national crime statistics.
Nationally, serious crime is down, Cachalia announced.
“I must also be clear; the levels of violence and criminality in South Africa remain far too high. A decrease in crime is not the same as achieving safety. The levels of crime are still unacceptably high, with 58 murders per day on average during this quarter,” Cachalia said.
How stations compare
A total of 1 648 drug-related cases were reported in Mitchells Plain for January to March. This is a slight decrease of 44 cases, or 2,6%, compared with the same quarter the year before.
The station also ranked second nationally for community-reported serious crime overall (1 861 cases), contact-related crime (190 cases), malicious damage to property (218 cases), common assault, and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition (43 cases and 7 counts lower) while placing third for contact crimes (868 cases).
Lentegeur Police Station retained its fifth-place national ranking in the fourth quarter for crimes detected as a result of police action, recording 751 cases, which is up by 34 cases, or 4,7%, for the same quarter last year.
Strandfontein did not feature in the top ranking for any crime category.
National stats
Nationally, community-reported serious crime fell by 4,4% during the fourth quarter. Contact crime dropped 4,6%, while property-related crime fell 8,7%. Murder was down 9,5% in the fourth quarter.
Drug-related crime increased 10,8% nationally, while arrests for driving under the influence surged by 29,3%.
An interesting fact from crime statistics is that crime patterns show substantial variations across the country. While Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal all recorded notable decreases in murders, these four provinces recorded more than 80% of all murders in South Africa.
Cachalia said: “The figures that will be presented today are not just numbers. They are a stark mirror held up to our society. Behind every statistic is a traumatised victim, a distraught family, a community living in fear.”
Lifestyle audits
Meanwhile, Western Cape MEC for Police Oversight, Anroux Marais, welcomed the announcement by Acting National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane, that lifestyle audits will be conducted on senior police managers. Marais said the allegations against senior police officials have eroded public confidence.
“South Africans deserve a police service that is beyond reproach. Lifestyle audits are a necessary tool to ensure that senior officers entrusted with significant authority and influence are acting with integrity and are not compromised by criminal networks or corrupt relationships. We are happy to see that the SAPS and Police Ministry are finally taking this matter seriously,” she said.
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