SAPS Crime Statistics Q2 2022/23, with Ministry

Meeting report

Opening remarks
Before the meeting started, the Chairperson noted that the Minister’s private number was leaked.

The Minister said that for four days, he was inundated with calls all day long. Many of the callers had hurled insults. Even his private email was shared and some people were using this to apply for jobs.

The Chairperson said that the Committee had received an indication that the Minister was going to release the crime statistics today. She was not going to do a long introduction and would allow the Minister to introduce the team and indicate who will do the presentation. The Committee hoped to conclude the meeting by 9:30.

Minister’s opening remarks
Minister Bheki Cele said that SAPS National Commissioner, Lieutenant General Sehlahle Masemola, would introduce the team and that Major General Norman Sekhukhune would present the crime statistics. He noted that the numbers were not looking good at this time. He informed the Committee that they had to leave at 9:30.

Briefing by the South African Police Service on Crime Statistics for Second Quarter from July to September 2022/2023 financial year

Maj Gen Norman Sekhukhune, Component Head: Crime Registrar, explained that the statistics reflect crimes that were reported to the South African Police Service from 1 July up to 30 September 2022. These crime figures were compared to the same period in 2021 when the country was still under Lockdown due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between July to September 2021, the country was under lockdown levels 4, 3 and 2.
All the contact crimes had increased in the period under review:
There were 7 004 murders, an increase of 841 (13.6%) compared to the previous quarter.
13 283 sexual offences were recorded, an increase of 1 319 (11%). In this category, rape increased by 10.8%, sexual assault by 8.1%, attempted sexual assaults by 34%, and contact sexual offences by 2.4%.
6 155 attempted murders were recorded, an increase of 998 (19.4%).
41 251 assaults with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm were recorded, an increase of 5 626 (15.8%).
44 389 common assaults were recorded, an increase of 7 252 (19.5%).
12 024 common robberies were recorded, an increase of 2 405 (25%).
38 412 robberies with aggravating circumstances were recorded, an increase of 6 932 (22%).

Kidnappings surged in the quarter, with over 4 028 cases reported to the police compared with 2000 cases between July and September 2021. More than 50% of the kidnappings – 2104 – took place in Gauteng.

Carjacking, robbery and rape were the top three motives for the recorded kidnapping across the country.

Inanda, uMlazi, police stations in KwaZulu-Natal and Nyanga station in the Western Cape registered the highest counts of murder during this period. A total of 274 counts of murder were reported in those three areas combined.

Mpumalanga is the only province to report a decrease in rape incidents. Inanda police station in KwaZulu-Natal, Mthatha in the Eastern Cape and Delft in the Western Cape were the three top stations with the highest rape cases. Buses, taxis, trains and other modes of public transport, were the third most likely places of occurrence for rape incidents.

(See Presentation)

Minister’s remarks

Minister Cele said that they had noticed that there were two bad months in the year, January and July. The previous presentation analysed January in detail. July was still being analysed to decide how to respond to these increases in crime.

Visibility had become a big issue in terms of policing. Everyone was aware of the number of police in the country. In releasing statistics in December, the Department and police required enhanced authority and energy to deal with this.

On women and children, these statistics were worrying, especially on rape including murder, because it was “unpoliceable”. More than 50% of rape occurred in people’s houses, including the murder of women and children.

In the Eastern Cape, the murder of seven people involved relatives and four children had been buried. It had not been the first time that mothers or close relatives were involved in the murder of children. This was increasing.

Discussion

The Chairperson said that the overall increase of 14,8% in reported crime was a serious concern, especially the significant increases reported in all sub-categories of contact crime and aggravated robbery.

As had been mentioned, the only categories that showed decreases were arson and burglary at non-residential premises.

Liquor had a direct and large impact on rape and assault GBH. There was an escalation of an altercation from common assault to serious assault to attempted murder, and ultimately to murder must be examined.  The root of the escalation of violence needed to be determined, to spot assault before it ended in murder. That was not always possible for the police, but it was a concern.

The leading causative factor of assault, murder and attempted murder remained arguments and misunderstandings. She was concerned that the second leading causative murder was vigilantism, or mob justice.

The leading place for murder and attempted murder remained in public places, while GBH remained in the perpetrator or victim’s residence.

The use of firearms in murder and attempted murder needed to be looked at. Knives were also a concern.

The Committee could not accept that despite significant resources being dedicated to protecting women and children, the picture had become increasingly bleak.

Sexual offences were increasing. Between July and September 2022, 13 283 sexual offences had been reported, if that was the correct figure, of which 10 590 were rape cases. In 90 days, close to 11 000 rapes had been committed. This indicated that 120 rapes had been committed every day over this period.

Violence towards women had shown a significant increase in the second quarter as it had in the first quarter. From the first quarter to the second quarter, there had been a 10,3% increase in murder, 10,6% increase in attempted murder and a 15,9% increase in assault GBH.

The social, economic and psychological challenges in South Africa had been constantly brought up by the Committee. Between July and September alone, almost 32 000 cases of domestic violence had been reported, of which almost half was common assault.

As the 16 days of activism against violence against women and children started, there had been a 9,8% increase in the murder of children, which was deeply concerning. In 90 days, 315 children had been murdered in South Africa. That was in 90 days, or three months, which meant that on average, 100 children had been murdered per month in South Africa.

She thanked the National Commissioner for clarifying the rape statistics at educational premises (which did not necessarily involve school-going individuals, this was just the scene of the crime).

It was clear that our society needed to change. There needed to be a change in perceptions in addressing interpersonal violence. Everything was seen as the responsibility of SAPS, despite the majority of violent crimes being caused as a result of misunderstandings in private residences. It was clear that SAPS was not the only solution, as Minister Cele had repeatedly stated. Other, more difficult questions needed to be asked and researched if were ever to live in a less violent society.

There had been more than 4 000 cases of kidnapping reported between July and September, which indicated an increase of over 100%. The majority of kidnappings were hijacking, robbery, and rape-related.

On the provincial statistics, the Northern Cape had an increase of 21,1% in crime. Was this because previously the numbers had been low?

The Chairperson was from the Northern Cape and knew that if one murder occurred in the Northern Cape, then it was an increase of 100%.

Dr P Groenewald (FF+) questioned the correctness of the crime statistics given. It was not a true reflection of the crime situation in South Africa. Earlier in the year, the Auditor-General’s report had pointed out discrepancies in certain crime statistics given by SAPS and what had been produced by different police stations. Even the AG had questioned the correctness.

On farm murders, there had been 16 reported cases of farm murders. Dr Groenewald questioned the correctness of these statistics. Seven people had been murdered in a farmhouse robbery in KZN. On slide 22, on farm murders, it said only one murder in KZN was listed as reported for 2022/23. The seven stated murders were not included under farm murders. He wanted an explanation of this.

It had been agreed that statistics on farm attacks would be provided but had not been shared with the Committee. He was concerned about how many times they will have meetings where undertakings are given but are not materialised.

He had another reason for questioning the crime statistics. He was aware that Stats SA was looking at the figures, but the problem was where people and victims went to police stations to report crimes but then many crimes were not recorded. People did not even receive a case number.

There was a huge problem between reporting from the station level to the provincial and national levels – it was not a true reflection.

A month ago, Dr Groenewald had asked the Minister about the number of robberies at police stations and the Minister could not answer immediately. After an extension, the Committee received an answer that in 2021/22 there were no robberies at any police station. But it had been reported in the media that a police station had been robbed. These were practical, obvious examples of incorrect crime statistics reported officially by the Minister. How was it that the media reported a police station robbery, but the Minister then stated that there had been no robbery in that financial year?

It was disturbing when looking at 7 004 murder cases in the second quarter, that if this was added to the first quarter, then there had already been 13 428 murders so far. If the annual statistics since 2011 were looked at, there had been a constant increase in murders after the 2010 World Cup, except in 2020/2021 due to the lockdown.  It was halfway through this annual year and the number was already at 13 428, so there was a good chance that there would be more than 26 000 murders by the end of the financial year.

What are SAPS and the Minister doing to deal with this crisis?

Mr A Whitfield (DA) said that Dr Groenewald had touched on a number of inconsistencies which were verifiable both from the AG and anecdotal evidence in the public domain. Most South Africans would say that this was not an accurate reflection of the crime situation, as most crime was underreported. However, these were the statistics which the Committee needed to refer to.

As the Chairperson had indicated, it was very clear that the South African government and all relevant departments, not just the police, were failing to contain the social dysfunctionality which was one of the root causes of crime. The police themselves were becoming overwhelmed by criminals who were brazenly attacking police stations, killing police officers, and operating with impunity. 

How did this environment occur? This environment occurred because accurate figures were not provided, and there was no trust relationship, where the Committee did not trust the information provided by the Minister.

The case-in-point was the DNA backlog, which included all the samples awaiting analysis, not just those registered as part of the backlog. If this was combined with the backlog figures provided by the Minister, it was closer to 200 000.

Why could the Committee not just be given a holistic, honest view of the situation in parliamentary questions and meetings? Mr Whitfield believed that this should be the starting point.

The Committee had a duty to hold the Minister and National Police Commissioner accountable for the implementation of recommendations from the Panel of Experts. There were a number of recommendations, including from the White Paper on Policing in 2016, which had not been implemented. They had been simply ignored or delayed. There had been no indication of how the Minister was turning SAPS around together with the National Police Commissioner, to transform policing in South Africa to a genuinely evidence-based policing model, where statistics could be analysed to such an extent that the correct resources and strategies could be deployed to deal with crime on a location-by-location basis.

The same police stations were seen in rural communities, including Plessislaer, Nyanga, Lusikisiki and Umtata, where violent crime was simply not being dealt with.

The capabilities of SAPS needed to be seriously looked at, to conduct its evidence-based policing based on its analysis, understand the patterns of crime in these local communities and ask why the strategies that were supposedly being deployed were not being deployed.

The failure of the rural policing strategy which had been launched to tremendous fanfare two years ago, should not be a tick-boxing exercise. It was known that the crime situation in South Africa was far worse than official statistics revealed. Actual, tangible deliverables needed to be demanded from the police. There had been no real, meaningful improvement on a holistic basis that said that SAPS was transforming itself into a world-class, honest, professional and evidence-based policing service.

The fact that the government was failing to arrest violent crime, which the President had committed in his SONA, needed to be seriously noted if the situation continued.

Mr Whitfield said that the Committee needed to do further research into the statistics, to understand patterns of crime and why they were occurring in certain months, in January and July as the Minister had mentioned, and to conduct oversight in these policing areas that are constantly appearing in the statistics.

Rev K Meshoe (ACDP) said that the picture that had been painted today was depressing and worrying. He asked whether we would ever live in a society where criminals were not in control. All the crime statistics were increasing.

Should it be concluded that the police were failing and that we would have to live with criminals causing havoc in communities forever? What could the Minster say to prevent South Africans from losing hope? What was going to be done that had not already been done to ensure that crime did not increase?

There had been 320 murders in modes of transport. Rev Meshoe asked for clarity on this. Were people murdered on public transport? Or was this also due to the increased kidnappings?

People had been kidnapped and murdered by criminals in police uniforms. Nothing had been said about the impact of this. Criminals were going into residential areas in police uniforms. How could people say they could not open the door for people in police uniforms? How could people be safeguarded from this?

When people were stopped by criminals in police uniforms in a police car, how could an individual or family be assured that the person stopping them was a police officer? It was a criminal offence not to stop for a real police officer. The misuse of police uniforms by criminals needed to be dealt with.

The murders of children were heart-breaking. When child murders were investigated, how many of these cases were muti-related? Many of the children that had been found were missing parts of their bodies. There had been 319 estimated child murders, how many murders were related to muti and harvesting of their body parts?

On rape, he observed from the presentation that alcohol had a role to play. The rapist was under influence of liquor. As most of these rapes occurred at residences behind closed doors, was pornography also playing a role in influencing rapists?

The causative factors of murders were arguments and misunderstandings, as stated during SAPS’ presentation. Were there any signs that levels of intolerance were increasing in the country? Were people becoming more intolerant and impatient which was causing these arguments and misunderstandings that led to murder? It was observed that road rage was increasing, could this point to intolerance increasing?

Mr O Terblanche (DA) said that on crime statistics, how could the Committee trust the official statistics as a true reflection of what occurred on the ground? Many people went to police stations and were turned away. As a result, people did not go to police stations.

What the Committee had heard today was very bleak. The Minister had said that crimes, such as rape and assault, occurred at people’s residences, which SAPS did not have much control over. He did not want to focus on what the police did wrong, he wanted to instead focus on what the police could change but they were not doing.

As Mr Whitfield had mentioned, the DNA backlogs needed to be dealt with as they assisted with solving crimes. The police could do something about this. There was also the poor performance of detectives. Detectives needed to be trained and equipped to ensure that investigations were done properly to be a deterrent for criminals. The police could also do something about the firearm register, but this was not managed properly.

Crimes in all areas had increased. The Committee had heard that the police could not do anything about it. He did not want to be blamed for making sweeping, generalised statements. The police itself had become a crime syndicate. People were buying their positions as police officials. Gangs had penetrated the police. How could the police be trusted?

He was not surprised about this quarter’s performance. The Committee should not accept unreliable statistics. There needed to be proactive policing. The police were supposed to be an active partner, leading the community. This did not happen.

When was SAPS going to start dealing with the things it could change? SAPS needed to change its policing style, as currently, it was outdated. It needed to move to modern policing. He was very concerned and said that the Committee could not accept this dismal performance.

Mr M Shaik Emam (NFP) said that it needed to be said that they had lost the war on crime in South Africa. The performance of the last three months clearly showed that no matter what was done, unless a holistic approach was taken to deal with the high levels of crime, the country was doomed. There needed to be a concerted effort to take back South Africa. What people went through was psychologically draining.

He agreed that the statistics were under-reported, but, more importantly, people were not reporting as they had no faith in the police.

Everyone in government worked in silos, no one was willing to work together. Many departments should come together and pool their budgets to deal with the root causes of crime in South Africa, but they were not willing to do that. Otherwise, crime would continue to increase, and people would not be able to live a normal life in South Africa. He was not surprised at the statistics.

What were the root causes of the high levels of crime in the country? Why did it exist? Where was it coming from? When would SAPS, with Basic Education and other role-players, start introducing programmes at the school level and at the grassroots level, to identify problem children or children coming from dysfunctional families, so social workers could be deployed to these homes and deal with the causes early?

No criminal was born a criminal or rapist. High levels of unemployment, poor living conditions, the availability of drugs and alcohol, and teenage pregnancies were the root causes of crime.

Putting more police officers on the ground would not solve the problem. They needed to solve the root causes. Police officers never stopped and searched people. They needed to search people, as weapons on people caused crime.

There was corruption in police stations. Police were working with syndicates. There could be different reasons for police being linked to gangs, such as fear. It was not just corruption; police did not have adequate protection for themselves and feared for their lives.

Were police officers not paid enough? Were their lives in danger? Were they threatened because other officers were corrupt? Why did police officers become corrupt?

Mr Shaik Emam wanted SAPS to be aware of the effect cannabis might be having on crime.

People had no respect for law enforcement. They attacked police stations and police officers and faced no consequences. The criminal justice system needed to be looked at. Police were arresting individuals who were released two hours later. A holistic approach was needed.

He was expecting this and could expect worse in the future unless this was dealt with at the grassroots level. Could they take collective responsibility to deal with crime?

It was sometimes argued that the Western Cape was better governed and better run, but the crime statistics said otherwise. What was being done wrong there?

Everyone needed to put their differences aside to find solutions.

To the Minister, how many detectives were at hotspot locations? Did SAPS have the capacity to deal with the number of crimes?

Some detectives had 200 dockets at a time. If they could not do justice to 10 dockets, how were they supposed to deal with 200 dockets?

There was no visibility. They needed to bring back the reservist system. He said that the government needed to stop giving out grants, but instead give out stipends to people who would be rolled out for visibility. There needed to be corporation and coordination with private security. There needed to be raids more often and in more areas. The Hawks had had some success in raids and arresting criminals, but all relevant authorities needed to be involved. Dysfunctional families needed to be identified early to prevent crimes, as most crimes happened in homes known to the perpetrators.

Mr H Shembeni (EFF) said that on crimes and sentences in the SADC region, it seemed as if South Africa was the playground of criminals. This was not happening in other countries in the region. It started with people from these countries coming to South Africa and doing what they pleased. A holistic approach needed to be taken. Sentencing needed to be the same as the criminals’ place of origin. This was an issue with our Constitution, which “accommodated every Tom, Dick, and Harry”. There was no respect for police officers in South Africa, which was not the case in neighbouring countries.

There were more officers in offices dealing with administration than on the street. This needed to be reduced. What was being done to motivate detectives? Police officers should not be given 200 dockets. The officer would not be able to keep track of complainants and suspects. Was there overtime, standbys, and promotions to motivate detectives?

Useless police officers sitting in offices were being promoted for nothing. There could not be so many generals and brigadiers in SAPS. How much was being spent on them rather than on recruiting young officers to hit the streets?

It was true that the crime statistics were manipulated. Mpumalanga was regarded as the number one province, even officers said that those statistics were being manipulated, as this could not be possible.

Had SAPS engaged the justice system on the sentencing?

We could not have people “carrying firearms like sweets or bread”. SAPS needed to engage with other departments to deal with the sentencing. The possession of unlicensed firearms was a concern. In all the mentioned crimes, firearms were the most used weapon. We could not have firearms “roaming the streets”. The Central Firearm Registry (CFR) backlog was also causing this.

On liquor causing crimes, Mr Shembeni said that SAPS always said that it was the Liquor Board’s mandate to close down taverns. Children were in those taverns, as were firearms. SAPS should be the responsible party if the police were doing patrols. If taverns were not closed at a specified time, the police needed to shut them down forever. Legislation needed to be put in place to deal with this. The J534 forms were last used in 1995, 1996 by the police.

On the seven farmhouse murders, had arrests been made in those cases? How much progress had been made on those investigations? It was unacceptable for seven people to be killed in their house in the morning, and nothing gets done.

Ms Z Majozi (IFP) said that on the visibility of SAPS, she observed this often. The problem was not visibility but the purpose of the visibility.

When the police set up roadblocks, the purpose was not to catch criminals or detain those who needed to be detained but to take bribes and give criminals leeway. SAPS needed to deal with its own system first. It was not a matter of visibility; there were roadblocks every day. What was the purpose of the roadblocks? How criminals were being detained? It was a low number.

The largest challenge in the police system was the police stations themselves. There was tribalism in stations – language either lets you get away with anything or gets you detained, with police officers not even caring to investigate.

The detectives were just as scared as they did not do due diligence on their work. There were bribes in cases, which would not stop until the system itself was cleaned up.

If there was an illegal firearm involved in a case, but the officer could be bought, the docket would disappear. Without solving this, they would not win this war on crime. It was a mess. It was the same situation in all stations in all districts, where officers treated cases with tribalism.

People who were employed by SAPS were not qualified; they were just there for the salary. There were no changes, even with an increase in employment. How did the recruitment process work? Were people brought in by people that they knew so they thought they did not need to do anything?

Ms Majozi was not sure whether JMPD fell under the province or SAPS. On JMPD golf t-shirts, any criminal could print these. How could SAPS ensure that people were not being stopped by criminals wearing JMPD golf t-shirt and then hijacked?

Was it true that JMPD cars had been repossessed by Avis? Would it have an impact on the police force, as there were no cars on the streets, so SAPS needed to cover JMPD’s responsibilities too?

The Chairperson reminded Ms Majozi that JMPD did not fall under the Minister but the under the province.

The Chairperson stated there were 10 minutes left before the Minister and his team needed to be released. A follow-up meeting will be needed to deal with all the issues. Responses would not be allowed in writing, SAPS would be invited back to respond, as written responses were sent to individual members and these responses were required for the entire Committee.

Response from the Minister

He could not accept Ms Majozi’s sweeping statement that police only conduct roadblocks for bribes. This was insulting to the police who were arresting criminals and doing their work and were shot and killed during their work. Individual members of the police who were bad apples were arrested.

The police being corrupt and infiltrated by criminals based on the Western Cape judgement was not true. Members should read paragraph 70 of that judgement. Minister Cele said he knew that Mr Whitfield had read the judgement. The judge did not just talk about corrupt police officers. He talked about corrupt police officers who had colluded with gangsters, judiciary, courts, and prosecution that had all been penetrated by gangs. It was not just the police.

He said that roadblocks worked well, especially in Gauteng, every weekend.

On DNA backlogs, he did not agree with the members, he could discuss this further.

On statistics being trustworthy, he also did not agree with the Committee members. He could provide the Committee with methodologies. The Department was working with Stats SA and was dealing with the issues raised by the AG.

It was unfortunate that there had not been enough time to respond but the SAPS would come back to provide clarity.

Chairperson’s remarks

The Chairperson said that an engagement with the Committee on the crime statistics was required. She thanked the Minister and his team for addressing the Committee. The Committee understood that the police had difficulties but also respected and supported the men and women in blue.

Committee minutes

Committee minutes from previous meetings held on 16 and 18 November 2022 were considered and adopted.

Other Committee Business

The Joint Oversight Visit Report would be approved on Friday, together with the Minerals and Energy Committee.

The meeting was adjourned.