A rise in rape and sexual assault is among the worrying trends emerging from the Western Cape’s latest crime statistics.
While sexual offences dropped marginally overall, rape increased by 40 cases and sexual assault by 18 between April and June.
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The figures were released by Provincial Police Commissioner Sizakhele Dyantyi on Tuesday.
Mfuleni recorded the highest number of contact crimes in the province, followed by Delft, Nyanga, Mitchells Plain, Kraaifontein, Cape Town Central, Khayelitsha and Worcester.
All eight stations are among the country’s top 30 for contact crimes.
Police said that gang violence, taxi-related conflict, extortion, targeted killings, and arguments continue to fuel serious violence in the Western Cape.
Firearms also remain a major concern.
Commissioner Dyantyi said getting illegal firearms off the streets remains a key priority.
“The province has confiscated 610 firearms for the three-month period. For example, Delft, as much as it is contributing, but Delft is the number one station nationally in terms of recovery of firearms, which is a positive thing.”
Despite an overall decline in contact crime, police said that the continued high levels of serious violence remain a major concern.
A drop in contact crimes in the Western Cape has been welcomed, but authorities said that the province’s murder rate remains unacceptably high.
Police recorded 1,071 murders during the three-month period, which is 77 fewer than the same time last year.
But several Western Cape police stations remain among the country’s worst crime hotspots.
Provincial Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Anroux Marais said the decline is encouraging, but more needs to be done.
“I want to say that I’m very happy to see a reduction specifically in our LEAP areas of 17%. But the murder rate is still too high, so we still have lots of work to do, but I must congratulate all the law enforcement agencies, SAPS, and the community.”
Western Cape Community Police Forum Board chairperson Fransina Lukas agrees that the decline is positive, but said that the human cost of violent crime remains devastating.
“We remain concerned that one murder is still one too many and many families are crying as a result of loved ones who have been lost due to violence on the Cape Flats.”
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