Police Minister Bheki Cele said they were trying to crackdown on crime with more police raids and other operations, but the numbers were coming down slowly.
In the police crime statistics for April to June this year, murder and rape dropped but the numbers still remain high.
Head of crime research in the SA Police Service (SAPS) Major-General Norman Sekhukhune told the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on police on Friday that murder has dropped by 3.5 percent and rape dropped by 2.8 percent.
He said 6,228 people were murdered between April and June this year. This is less compared to 6,424 people who were killed during the same period last year.
He said there were 9,252 rape cases that were reported between April and June this year, and this is less compared to the 9,516 rape cases reported between April and June in 2022.
Chairperson of the portfolio committee Nocks Seabi said this was an important meeting as it would shed more light on the country’s fight against crime.
Cele said all provincial commissioners were now meeting every Monday to review the operations they had conducted over the weekend.
This was after the police decided to start expanding its policing operations across the country.
Cele said they have also realised that crime trends have shifted from weekends to Tuesday and Wednesday.
They were trying to deal with that as well. In the past most of the crimes were committed over weekends.
But Cele said they have seen that most of the crimes were now happening during the week.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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