The latest crime stats were released today.
THE FRANCES Baard, John Taolo Gaetsewe and ZF Mcqawu districts in the Northern Cape were identified as areas of concern in terms of their high crime rates.
This was according to the Northern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Peter Shivuri, who was speaking during the release of the provincial crime statistics on Tuesday.
The crime stats were released by the Premier of the Northern Cape, Dr Zamani Saul, who was accompanied by the MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison, Nomandla Bloem.
Shivuri indicated that while overall crime levels remained stable, of particular concern were crimes against women and children.
The commissioner called on members of the community to join the police in the fight against the scourge of crimes against women and children.
“We need to come up with a plan of action to further reduce this particular crime,” said Shivuri.
Saul meanwhile expressed his satisfaction with what he described as the good progress made in fighting crime in the Northern Cape.
He highlighted the progress made in the area of financial crime, which has decreased in the Province.
Saul, however, also highlighted the increase in social crimes, in partiuclar rape, where he pointed out that the perpetrators were mostly acquaintances of the victim.
“One of the issues that we want communities to be aware of is that 90% of rapes in the Province is by acquaintances – which are boyfriends and family members. They are mostly uncles and aunts, ex-boyfriends and neighbours. So rape in the Northern Cape is principally among people who know each other,” said Saul.
”We have to develop the appropriate strategy to respond to that.”
The premier added that the increase in murder cases was a concern, especially knife killings.
“Out of the 326 cases of murder, about 162 of them were due to ‘okapis’,” Saul pointed out.
MEC Bloem also expressed concern around crimes against women and children. “There are still too many women and children affected by violence.
“If we read the trends around the occurrence of crime and the conditions that lead to crime, we see that our crime stems, mostly, from the realities of relationships and conditions surrounding households, including substance abuse, unemployment and poverty,” said Bloem.
She emphasised the need for crime-prevention approaches to be collaborative efforts between law enforcement agencies, communities and stakeholders, working together to address the root causes of crime.
