The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling on the South African Police Service (SAPS) to release full and disaggregated gender-based violence (GBV) and child violence statistics without delay.
The latest crime statistics presented by Acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia raise serious concerns about accuracy, completeness and transparency, especially during the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence on Women and Children, Lisa Schickerling MP – DA Spokesperson on Police, said last week.
“While the DA notes a marginal decline in murders and attempted murders, the stark reality remains that violence affecting women and vulnerable groups is increasing and key information is missing,” she said in a statement.
Even though SAPS records crimes against children none were presented. Failing to release this data is a serious omission that prevents communities and Parliament from understanding the true scale of the crisis, according to the DA.
A major discrepancy appears between SAPS’ categories:
SAPS “contact sexual offences” category reports only 170 to 196 cases
SAPS rape statistics for the same period show 6 559 in Q1 and 7 204 in Q2
“This inconsistency raises a critical oversight question. If SAPS reports two different sets of figures for sexual violence, which data stream should the public trust?” Schickerling asked.
Small percentage drops hide extreme levels of daily violence
SAPS highlights a slight reduction in murder and attempted murder, but the real scale remains ‘severe’. During Q2 alone:
5 270 murders equals 58 murders per day, or 2.4 murders per hour
5 519 attempted murders equals 61 per day
7 204 rapes equals 78 rapes per day, or more than 3 every hour
32 854 cases of assault GBH equals 365 serious assaults per day, or 15 per hour
4 784 carjackings equals 52 per day
“This is not a picture of communities feeling safer. It is a country experiencing constant and severe violence,” Schickerling said.
High volume violence is increasing, not decreasing
SAPS’ own numbers show:
Rape increased by almost 10 percent
Assault GBH increased by 5.2 percent
Carjackings increased by 2.4 percent
“This means more people are being attacked, injured or sexually violated. A slight reduction in murder does not offset the escalating violence in categories that mainly affect women and children,” Schickerling said.
SAPS acknowledges massive underreporting but fails to reflect this in the public narrative
According to the Stats SA Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey:
32.5 percent of assaults are not reported
42.4 percent of home robberies are not reported
These are exactly the categories that dominate contact crime totals, the DA pointed out.
“Given the data gaps, contradictions and omissions, how can South Africans trust any of SAPS’ reported GBV figures? Furthermore, what is the SAPS plan to fix the escalating levels of rape, assault and violence that women and children face every day?” Schickerling asked.
“If almost half of these contact crimes are never reported, the true scale of GBV and child violence is significantly worse than SAPS figures indicate. This is why the DA calls for accurate crime statistics. They show where the problems are, guide where resources should go and expose failures so that action can be taken. Omitting child crime from the records leaves communities blind and vulnerable. The DA deems this as a failure of transparency and accountability and a betrayal of the communities who are most at risk,” the party concluded.
