Crimes against women and children remain a concern, says Masemola

National police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola says police remain concerned about the number of crimes committed against women and children.

Masemola made these remarks during a presentation to the parliament portfolio committee for police of the fourth-quarter crime statistics for the 2022/2023 financial year. The fourth quarter covers the period from January to March 2023.

Police top brass released the figures ahead of a media briefing in Cape Town.

Contact crimes against women in the fourth quarter increased across three categories, with attempted murder leading the pack with an increase of 21.5%, or 263. Seventy-one more murders were reported, a 7.9% increase, while assault grievous bodily harm (GBH) was up by 0.7%, or 107.

In the children’s categories, murders and assault GBH both decreased significantly in the latest quarter, while attempted murder increased. Sixty-one fewer murders were reported against children, a 19.9% decrease, while six fewer children were assaulted, a 0.3% decrease. Attempted murder increased by 8.8%, or 29 cases, in the latest quarter.

Commenting on this, Masemola said while they acknowledge the general decrease in crimes against children, the figures remained too high.

“The fact that it’s three digits, we agree that it’s too high and we will try our best in terms of awareness. We acknowledge crimes against women and children are a concern. We are doing our best with the FCS [family violence, child protection and sexual offences] in terms of attending to those cases and ensuring they are solved,” he said.

Overall, contact crimes increased by 4% in the fourth quarter, with common robbery leading the pack at 8.9%, followed by attempted murder with 8.3% and common assault with 7.6%.

Murder rose by 3.4%, while sexual offences decreased by 4.3%. In that subcategory attempted sexual offences increased the most, by 21.2%, while rape, sexual assault and contact sexual offences went down.

Arguments, misunderstandings, road rage and provocation were the leading causes of murder as well as assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Most of these cases took place in a public place such as a street, open field, recreational centre, park, beach, parking area or abandoned building.

Two KwaZulu-Natal police stations retained the top spots among the 30 police stations with the highest number of murder cases. This despite both reporting fewer murders in the fourth quarter. Umlazi reported 68 murders, down from 103 in the year-earlier period, while Inanda reported 64 murders, down from 75.

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