The Eastern Cape Provincial Police Commissioner, Lt Gen Liziwe Ntshinga, announced the official Eastern Cape crime statistics for the third quarter of last year (from October to December 2020).
The event was held at the Sakhisizwe Local Municipality building in Cala. MEC Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe from the Department of Safety and Liaison also attended the briefing.
“We gather here today to witness the official release of the Crime Statistics as released by the
South African Police Services. We are here to report
back to our people of how we have fared as a province in dealing with crime in
the three months from October to December 2020,” Tikana-Gxothiwe said.
The period under
review is between Lockdown Level 1, “a time when most people had even forgotten
that we were still on lockdown, a time leading up to the Festive Season,” she said.
“Later in the year, we
saw President Cyril Ramaphosa moving the country to Adjusted Level 3 of the
lockdown, as Covid numbers soared. This was also the
time when our behaviour as a country, especially in relation to the use of alcohol
had reached alarming levels, forcing authorities to take drastic decisions and
put the country in full on Level 3 Lockdown.
“I am mentioning all
these to put into context how challenging a period the quarter in question was. . . not just for us, but for just about every segment of our government.”
In the third quarter the murder rate increased by 0.5%. A total of 1 204 people were killed in the Eastern Cape this past quarter, compared to 1 198 in the
corresponding period in the previous financial year.
There was also an increase of 16.2% in reported sexual assault cases – 43 more than the previous year’s 266 cases. Another big increase was truck hijackings, which grew by 22.9% compared to the corresponding period last year.
Robbery with aggravating circumstances declined with 13.3%; attempted murder cases fell by 12.3% and attempted sexual offences decreased by 23.9%.
See below for a full report on the statistics.
