South Africa’s crime statistics will be released sometime in June, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Thursday.
At a press conference on the work of government’s justice, crime-prevention and security cluster, Nqakula said the statistics and the police annual report will be released together.
This follows an undertaking by Nqakula in 2006 that the annual release of crime statistics will take place closer to the government’s financial year-end at the end of March rather than the usual release date in September.
Several opposition parties and NGOs have in the past said the annual release in September is too late since the ”crime statistics are out of date by at least six months”.
Although they will only be released in June this year Nqakula said his department is working on an even quicker turn-around time.
”We are looking at the possibility to release it in the subsequent month when the financial year comes to an end on March 31. We want to release it by the latest on May 1,” he said.
The annual release of statistics was introduced after a government-imposed moratorium on the release of police crime statistics was lifted in 2001. Before the moratorium crime statistics were released on a regular basis.
At the time government said the regular releases were not helping since they were not indicating crime trends.
On Thursday Nqakula again said statistics are not helpful in mobilising people against crime.
He said while statistics would be published, what is actually needed is regular updating on crime trends, indicating the crimes happening in certain areas, and why, when and where they were happening.
”The majority of people want to know whether crime in their area is being handled by police and handled properly … When you stand there and simply rattle numbers off to them you’re not mobilising them,” he said.
He also indicated that internationally fewer countries are publishing crime statistics.
The Institute of Security Studies on their website, however, indicates that statistics is a valuable tool.
”The annual release of the crime statistics by the police provides detailed information on the levels of reported crime. Although these statistics are not the only indicators of actual crime levels in the country, they are extremely useful when trying to monitor and understand South Africa’s crime rate.” — Sapa