The latest quarterly crime statistics for the Western Cape show small signs of hope as contact crimes including murder and attempted murder have decreased.
However, there was an increase in robberies with Nyanga recording the most reported cases.
On Wednesday the stats were unpacked by Premier Alan Winde, Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen and provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile.
According to the Saps stats, the murder rate in the province went down by 5.5% between April and June, while attempted murder decreased by 6.7% in the same period.
A total of 939 Capetonians were murdered during this period and 1 473 attempted murder cases were registered.
Of this, 166 murders were due to gang violence.
Patekile said they are concerned about the murder of children: “We have seen that those children are aged between one and 17, and also within this group you’d notice that they are mostly gang murders, children fighting each other.”
He said the murder weapon of choice was guns, adding: “Since January we have recovered 1661 illegal firearms and 92 022 ammunition.”
Delft is the murder capital of the Western Cape, with 61 cases reported, followed by Gugulethu (59), Harare (58), Nyanga (48) and Khayelitsha (47).
Mitchells Plain recorded the highest number of attempted murder cases at 46, followed by Worcester (32), Delft (30) and Manenberg (30).
Patekile said cops busted 28 suspects in 13 kidnapping cases.
Regarding the Cape’s “construction mafia”, he said that 10 extortion cases were reported and eight arrests made since April.
Winde described the latest stats as encouraging: “Our job is far from done and we must continue with this momentum, using the Western Cape Safety Plan as our guide, in using the resources that we have we must keep battling crime.”
Allen added: “LEAP is making a difference, and I assure our residents that we will continue investing in our officers so that further reductions can be achieved.”
byron.lukas@inl.co.za