Lockdown seems to have paid off in the Northern Cape with some crime figures dropping significantly.
A TOTAL of 106 parolees in the Free State and Northern Cape were arrested in the last financial year for offences relating to gender-based violence.
This is according to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, in response to a Parliamentary question posted by DA member Dr Mimmy Gondwe.
According to Lamola, a total of 411 parolees were re-arrested between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020 for offences relating to gender-based violence.
The Northern Cape/Free State had the highest number of re-arrests, at 106, followed by Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West, with a combined total of 105.
The lockdown meanwhile has had a significant impact on crime in the Northern Cape. According to the crime statistics for the second quarter of this year, the total number of sexual offences in the Province dropped by 33.5%, from 322 incidents reported between April to June 2019, to 198 incidents reported during the same period this year.
Rape was down by 36.3% from 232 incidents to 148 incidents.
Almost every category of crime in the Province dropped considerably in the second quarter of this year. Murder was down from 76 cases to 42 (a drop of 38.4%), while attempted murder dropped form 92 cases to 78 (a 15.2% decline), assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm dropped by a massive 42.2%, from 1 694 cases reported in the Province during the three months to 979. Common assault dropped from 1 000 cases to 763 (23.7%), common robbery from 341 cases to 203 (another big drop of 40.5%) and robbery with aggravating circumstances dropped by 401 cases to 247 cases (38.4%).
Only a handful of categories of crime increased during this period and among them was robbery at residential premises which jumped from 33 cases reported to 40 – an increase of 21%, as well as burglary at non-residential premises, which increased by 10% from 602 cases to 665 cases, and stock theft, which went up by 16.2% from 346 to 403 cases reported.
The biggest drop during this period was theft of motor vehicles, which dropped from 67 cases to 16 – a decrease of 76.1%.
Shoplifting dropped by more than 50%, from 391 cases to 194 cases.
