The department of Community Safety organized a deliverology report of the crime stats in Sandton, for the Gauteng province, and elaborated on how the South African Police Service (SAPS) work together with the community to decrease crime in the province. In 2017 the department of Community Safety had an ambitious plan to decrease crime by 50 percent, however, the plan was not fulfilled and the department together with the SAPS still have a lot of work to do.
The statistics that were released by the department date back from 2018 and chairperson Mapitsi Matsena complained about the stats provided as being old and not being an updated version for 2019. According to the deliverology report trio crimes have in increased since 2017, trends reflect marginal decrease in sexual offences.
“Ivory Park and Tsakane reported the highest number of sexual offence cases, honeydew reported highest number of trio crime cases in January 2018. Duduza is overall the most improved station for January 2018, it reported least number of cases for sexual offences and trio crimes, for the province to reach 50 percent crime reduction, crime in the 40 stations must be reduced by at least 6,25 percent per quarter.
For the period under review we should be at 18,75 percent. Unfortunately, the 40 stations have recorded an increase of 16,28 percent of 429 cases in trio and 33 percent of 427 cases sexual offences from the period”, said Mr. Sibiya from department of Community Safety.
Okae Molao was commended throughout the delivery with key speakers noting that the initiative has a tremendous effect when it comes to decreasing crime and apprehending undocumented immigrants. Three strategies were introduced by the community safety and they include increasing the deployment and visibility of police officials in high crime areas.
Secondly, crimes related to alcohol and drug abuse (driven by taverns and shebeens) in high crime areas need to be managed. Thirdly pedestrian road safety needs to be improved. At a later stage, during the briefing, the panel questioned the authenticity of the statistics provided and convictions that have been made so far by the justice department.
