The crime statistics will cover the 2014/15 financial year – covering the period April 2014 to March 2015 – the SAPS announcement said, adding that the crime report will cover only crimes that have been reported to the police.
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Crimes against a person are referred to as contact crime, while contact related crime is used for violent crimes against property with the intention of causing damage to a person.
He added that there were still high levels of violence and aggression in society and this was a serious concern.
Mr Nhleko, briefing Parliament’s police committee, said that contact crimes had increased by 0.9% across all the categories meaning that increases in a few would be larger than in others.
Contact crime, which included murder, attempted murder, assault and robbery with aggravating circumstances, had spiked by 0.9%.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko says alcohol and drug abuse continue to drive up the levels of crime, despite the success in clamping down on illegal shebeens. Police arrested and charged perpetrators in 83.4% of the serious crime cases reported by the community, the minister said. In the courts, 1 043 life sentences were imposed on 739 suspects, while 686 police were arrested for various types of crimes in 2014/15.
Police recovered 36,186 vehicles that were reported lost or stolen.
Aggravated robbery includes robbery at a residential or business address, and the hijacking of cars and trucks, which are also known as the trio crimes.
The Minister said other serious crime – including theft, commercial crime like fraud and shop lifting, went down by 2.2% and accounted for 27.8% of all reported crimes.
Murder was up by 4.6%, attempted murder by 3.2% and aggravated robbery by 8.5%.
Overall‚ he said there had been a decrease in crimes against women and children‚ but this remained a problem.
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“The issue of crime statistics is not simply about the numbers, but also reflected the state of society…it is who we are”. “The National Development Plan places emphasis on the creation of partnerships in creating conditions of safety and security”, Nhleko said.
