Police Minister Bheki Cele has expressed concern about the spike in the murder rate in the country, with 7,710 people murdered between October and December last year.
Cele said this was an increase of 2.1% compared to the same period last year.
The minister of police was on Friday releasing crime statistics for the third quarter in Pretoria on Friday.
Political parties were already slamming the government during the debate on the State of the Nation Address.
They accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of failing to tackle violent crime.
But Ramaphosa said he has provided more resources to law enforcement agencies to fight crime.
Cele said they were concerned about the rise in the murder rate in the country. There were 7,710 people killed in the third quarter, which is 155 more people compared to the same period last year.
He said most of the murders were reported in Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The minister said they had mobilised resources in the build-up to the festive season. This was a busy period and they had deployed police officers and operations in key and strategic areas.
In some of the cases, they were able to thwart criminal gangs from robbing people.
They managed to arrest thousands of suspects for various offences, including murder, rape, theft and drug dealing.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
IOL Politics