The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) on Tuesday said that it commended the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, on the department’s efforts to quantify and categorise the level of crime in the country, but added that this did not leave room for complacency in combating the scourge of crime across South Africa.



The statistics revealed by the Minister on Monday showed an apparent achievement of a 6,4% target reduction in the overall crime level.



However, business appeared to have become a favoured target for criminals, Sacci said.



This was reflected in the 47% increase in business-related robberies, the 40% increase in truck hijacking and the 10% increase in bank robberies. It was only in cash-in-transit robberies that were down.



Robbery at business premises increased from 6 689 cases in the previous period to 9 862 during the current reporting cycle. That was an increase of 3 173, or 47,4%.



Sacci hoped that the increased expenditure allocated to policing under the Medium Term Economic Framework (from R36-billion at present to R49-billion in 2010/11), and the intention to increase the police force from 173 000 to over 200 000 by 2011, would result in a noticeable reduction in the abnormal levels of crime that South Africa endures.



Business said it would continue to play a role in combating crime. This included working with the police and other crime prevention agencies as well as providing resources to assist in the struggle.



“Big business, the supporters of Business Against Crime, got involved directly in the fight against crime in a partnership that has evolved into what is called the Anti-Crime Leadership Forum that has four Working Groups. The Leadership Forum did a review of the Criminal Justice System as one of the joint projects on which they collaborated,” indicated Nqakula.



“Quite significant in this regard are the decreases of 7,4% and 4,7% in robbery with aggravating circumstances and murder, respectively, given that those crimes went up by 4,6% and 2,4% in the past financial year,” said Nqakula.



Robbery at residential premises rose by 1 720 cases, or by 13,5%, from 12 761 in the previous financial year, to 14 481 cases in the current reporting cycle.



Carjacking jumped from 13 599 to 14 201 cases, an increase of 602 cases on the previous period. The biggest jump involved the hijacking of trucks where, in the previous period 892 cases were reported to 1 245 in the current reporting cycle, accounting therefore, for an increase of 39,6% or 353 cases.



Nqakula stated that the current crime statistics report showed that rape went down by 8,8%, and indecent assault decreased by 2,1% statistically.



Edited by: Mariaan Olivier

For:  Engineering News