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.

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The violent crime crisis in South Africa is well-documented. It is common to hear people from outside South Africa express astonishment at how we manage to survive in a country with violence levels comparable to active war zones. South Africans have grown accustomed to this reality, while their political leaders only pay lip service to the fight against crime.

We must first determine what type of crime we are addressing. In the simplest definition, a crime is anything deemed unlawful by a statute of a particular jurisdiction. For example, if a law prohibits smoking in a private residence used as a home office; smoking in that space would constitute a crime/offence.

A more robust definition of crime stems from natural law and justice, stating that any action that harms or infringes upon another’s rights is a crime. This definition includes offenses like murder and rape, which do not rely on statutes for recognition as crimes.

It is crucial for citizens to understand this distinction. When politicians claim to be combating crime, which crimes are they targeting? Are they allocating resources to apprehend individuals lacking proper permits or signage for their businesses, or are they focusing on murderers, rapists, and thieves?

Due to non-harmful crimes being included in the statute book, resources are spent on prosecuting individuals whose actions are not harmful but are considered criminal for various reasons. This includes arresting and prosecuting individuals for drug possession and/or drug use and even its commercial activity. No matter how reprehensible you may find it when another person consumes drugs, someone else taking them does not harm you in any way. The action of consuming drugs is not harmful to anyone but the drug user themselves.

Given South Africa’s high rates of violent crime, this focus on non-harmful crimes is troubling. It is imperative to concentrate all criminal justice resources on actions that harm others, such as violent crimes, rather than procedural offenses that do not harm anyone.

This means focusing more on the rape and violent assault epidemic, coupled with a murder rate that would make many across the world afraid to venture outside in South Africa at all, and such rampant theft through crimes like housebreakings.

The most effective approach would be for the legislature to consider repealing many of these laws that criminalize actions without causing harm to others. This would streamline the criminal justice system, allowing it to focus solely on crimes that harm individuals.

As citizens, we must consider what matters most to us. Is it more important to arrest an entrepreneur lacking proper documentation, or should our state’s primary focus be eliminating violent crime in our society? Prosecuting non-harmful actions instead of harmful ones will not create a safer or more prosperous society.

The excessive allocation of resources to non-harmful crimes amidst a severe crisis is why the Free Market Foundation’s Section 12 project suggests decriminalisation as a solution to South Africa’s crime problem. Other solutions to dealing with violent crime include a sounder definition of crimes in South Africa, decentralisation of policing powers as it has been shown to improve accountability, and the ability to respond to local context-specific offenses. Developing the capacity of the criminal justice system by increasing funding to enable it to deal with the mammoth task that is our violent crime problem is also part of the solution.

According to the South African Police Service itself at the Khayelitsha Commission, it does not have enough human resources to service the South African populace. Therefore, the most rational thing to do would be to lessen the avenues under which they will be expending their already limited resources. One can only hope that sense will prevail with the current decision-makers, and they will take seriously our violent crime crisis.

Thus, when the next politician you listen to says they promise to fight crime or they are, ask them which crime? Lest you think the state is protecting you whilst it is criminalizing those who harm no one and by virtue of that, letting those who do harm others, walk free.

The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of ProtectionWeb.

Written by Zakhele Mthembu BA Law LLB (Wits), Policy Officer at the Free Market Foundation.

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Titled “Mental health and cognitive outcomes associated with early childhood violence exposure: a focus on children in low-middle income countries (LMICs)”, the systematic reviews conducted within the thesis showed that approximately 70% of 17 studies from 20 LMICs identified a link between exposure to violence and poor cognitive outcomes in children. Additionally, all 58 studies reviewed from 26 LMICs found associations between violence exposure and mental health problems. “This consistent evidence highlights the pervasive impact of violence on both cognitive and emotional development in young children,” said Tsunga.

The empirical study conducted under the umbrella of Drakenstein Child Health Study (DCHS) – a South African birth cohort led by Professor Heather Zar – found that a significant proportion of children, between 72% and 75%, were found to have been exposed to domestic or community violence at a young age (3.5 to six years old).

The study demonstrated that exposure to violence, including domestic victimisation and witnessing community violence by age 4.5 years, was associated with increased internalising behaviours, such as anxiety and depression, and externalising behaviours, such as aggression and hyperactivity, by five years of age. It also found that polyvictimisation – exposure to multiple types of violence – was linked to increased prevalence of externalising behaviours amongst the children at age five.

Tsunga also described negative associations between lifetime exposure to violence and cognitive outcomes, such as selective attention, receptive language, nonverbal intelligence, and inhibition.

The DCHS was used to assess the patterns of lifetime violence exposure among preschoolers directly. “The study provided a unique opportunity to explore various health and developmental issues in a context characterised by high levels of social and environmental challenges,” said Tsunga.

“Tsunga’s thesis makes a critical contribution to understanding patterns of violence exposure of young children in LMICs, particularly in South Africa. Her work clearly highlights this often silent epidemic and is a call to professionals and policy makers at all levels to be alert to this issue and to support initiatives that focus on protecting mothers and children and public health measures that prioritise this,” said Professor Donald, commenting on the findings.

Tsunga emphasised that the findings highlighted the pressing need for early interventions to reduce the negative impact of violence on both mental health and cognitive development. She also added that the evidence presented in the thesis indicated that children in high-violence environments are vulnerable to developing emotional and cognitive issues at a young age, which can have lasting effects on their overall development and future well-being.

“Policymakers and practitioners should prioritise developing and implementing interventions aimed at reducing violence exposure and providing support for affected children. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of incorporating violence prevention and intervention strategies into public health policies, particularly in LMICs where the burden of violence is high. By addressing these issues early on, it is possible to improve developmental outcomes for children and reduce the long-term consequences of violence exposure,” she said.

She further said: “The findings of this thesis resonate deeply within the South African context, where violence is a prevalent and pressing issue affecting many communities. As a psychologist working in this environment, I find the results concerning and insightful. They reveal the pervasive impact of violence on young children’s mental health and cognitive development, which aligns with the experiences of many children in South Africa. The high rates of domestic and community violence exposure reported in the study highlight the urgent need for targeted interventions and support systems to protect and nurture our children’s development.”

She noted that the study also pointed to the resilience and adaptability of children when given the appropriate support, which was encouraging.

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A total of 17000 police officers will be deployed in KwaZulu-Natal when South Africans head to the polls in May.

“One of the tasks you gave us is to prevent, investigate and combat
crime and most importantly, to enforce the law. If you violate the law, if you
break the law, ours is to enforce,” said provincial police commissioner
Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on Wednesday.

He said the SA Police Service and security cluster as a whole in
KwaZulu-Natal were planning to deploy “no less than 17 000 law enforcement officers
to police these elections.”

Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi was speaking at an Independent Electoral Commission event
where political leaders signed the code of conduct and pledged to ensure a
democratic and peaceful general election, free from any form of violence,

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said more than 20000 people died “as
a result of internecine political violence in KwaZulu-Natal, from the late
1980s to way beyond the democratic moment in 1994.”

“We have made major strides in establishing peace and tolerance as a way of
life in our province. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of our democratic
breakthrough, we commend the maturity displayed by various political parties
through the signing of this pledge.”

“Unlike most of our sister provinces, we know the brutality of political
intolerance and the social devastation that this wreaks on our people.
Therefore, this commitment by political parties is much more than just
appending signatures to a pledge, but a solemn promise to our people that they
will not allow the elections to take us back to the days of instability,” she
said.

Nomusa Dube-Ncube said peace and development could not be achieved in the
absence of the other.

“Therefore, all of us have the responsibility to strive for peace, stability
and tolerance, even beyond the elections so that our province can continue on
its upward and forward growth trajectory,” she said.

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