Africa-Press – South-Africa. More than 6 400 people were murdered in South Africa in just three months between April and June, which is an 11.5% increase when compared with the same period in 2021.
Minister of Police Bheki Cele, along with South African Police Service management, released the quarterly statistics on Friday.
Reflecting on the statistics, Cele said the murder rate in South Africa remained high and worrisome.
Between April and June 2022, a total of 6 424 people were murdered – that’s 664 more people murdered compared to the 5 760 people murdered during the same period the previous year.
According to these statistics, around 70 people were murdered in South Africa every day during the reporting period.
The overwhelming majority of victims were adult men, with 855 women and 243 children murdered.
Of the murders committed, 1 623 were recorded in KwaZulu-Natal, followed by Gauteng with 1 490, Eastern Cape, 1 200, and the Western Cape recorded 994 murders in that period.
Motives
Analysing around 6 000 of the murders committed, the most common motive was arguments, including misunderstandings, road rage and provocation, which accounted for 898 murders.
The second most common motive, which accounted for 484 murders, was retaliation, in the form of revenge and punishment.
Meanwhile, community members continued taking the law into their own hands as 472 of the murders were a result of mob justice.
A total of 176 gang-related murders were recorded, 161 of them in the Western Cape, while 90 taxi violence murders took place across the country.
Twenty-four people were murdered after they had been raped, according to the statistics.
Place of occurrence
Most of the murders during this period took place in public areas such as fields, streets, parks and abandoned buildings, while 1 746 murders occurred in either the perpetrator or victim’s home.
Police recorded 242 murders that were committed in a mode of transport including busses and taxis, while 227 people were killed in liquor outlets.
One person was murdered in either a prison or police station holding cell.
Murder weapon
The most commonly used weapon in these murders was a firearm. Police recorded that in 2 766 of the murders, the perpetrator used a firearm.
Knives were used in 935 of the murders while blunt instruments were used in 231.
One hundred people were murdered by either the use of a stone or brick.
While police gave a breakdown of the murder cases, they did not reveal how many arrests they made and how many of these cases ended up in court or saw a conviction.
Rape
While murders showed a sharp increase, reported cases of rape declined by 4.9%.
Cele said that during April and June this year, a total of 9 516 cases of rape were reported to police, compared to 10 006 cases reported during the same period in 2021.
In addition, 1 707 cases of sexual assault were recorded.
“This is almost 500 less rape cases reported, compared to the same period last year. While rape cases declined in all provinces, the North West and Northern Cape provinces are the only provinces to report increases in this crime category,” Cele said.
Of the reported rape cases, 3 780 rapes took place in either the homes of the rapist or of victim, while 1 546 people were raped in public places, including streets and parks.
While police did not give statistics on how many of the reported cases during this period resulted in arrests or convictions, they did note that between April and June this year, 286 rapists were convicted.
These convictions are likely from incidents not committed during the reporting period.
“Out of the 286 rape convictions, 46 of the rapists were sentenced to life behind bars,” said Cele.
“While the majority of rapes do take place behind closed doors and are hard to police, we are confident that it is through the FCS [Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences] detective work that is preventing more rapes, hence the decrease in rape cases during the reporting period,” he added.
According to police, 16 of these offenders were involved in 65 serial sexual offence cases, making them serial rapists, and are serving a total of 20 life sentences and 886 years imprisonment.
Gauteng recorded the most cases of rape with 2 415, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 2 307 rape cases opened, Eastern Cape 1 848 and 1 611 rape cases were opened in the Western Cape.
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