An increase in serious violent crimes for a third successive year has heaped pressure on South Africa's beleaguered national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, whose fitness to hold office is being investigated at the behest of the president.
The release of the country's annual crime statistics by police minister Nathi Nhleko revealed that the crime South Africans fear the most – murder — had increased by 4.6 per cent to 17,805 in the 12 months to the end of February.
In addition, attempted murders had also risen by 3.2 per cent to 17,537, while assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm increased by 0.1 per cent to 182,556.
Overall contact crimes, which include murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, were up by 0.9 per cent.
Mr Nhleko insisted that to tackle violent crime in South Africa all of society's structures needed to be mobilised.
“To resolve the whole issue of murder . . . to think we [as the police] can resolve the murder in society is effectively a hallucination. It has to be tackled in family units, which are the basic units of the composition of our society.
“The manner in which we school and groom our children on how to manage interpersonal relations and so forth becomes quite critical, so you require effective social mobilisation around that,” he said.
There were some improved statistics , with sexual offences reported to police decreasing by 5.4 per cent in the period, to 53,617 cases.
The crime figures come only weeks after South African president Jacob Zuma announced that a board of inquiry into allegations of misconduct against Ms Phiyega, and her capacity to execute official duties efficiently, had been established.
The high-level investigation was launched after the Farlam commission of inquiry into the shooting dead by police of 34 striking miners in 2012 at Marikana in North West province recommended that Ms Phiyega’s role in the incident warranted further probing.
According to South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the increase in serious crime betrays a failure of police strategy, but the South African police service should not shoulder the burden alone, and they should collaborate more.
“The police cannot be held responsible for dealing with all crime, especially not most murders, rape, child abuse and assault,” said Gareth Newham, head of the ISS governance, crime and justice division, “These crimes often start intergenerational cycles of violence and addressing them requires a different approach.”
