If your sister or friend was killed in 2006, there is an 82% chance that you, or someone else they knew, did it.
This is the implication of extraordinary statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) at the Union Buildings recently. They showed that at least two-thirds of all contact crimes occur between people who know one another.
And with unprecedented directness, the SAPS has highlighted the responsibility of other government departments for bringing down South Africa’s soaring violent crime rate.
The figures, derived from docket analysis at hundreds of police stations, show that 89% of common assaults and assaults intended to cause serious physical harm (380 997 incidents), 76% of all rapes (39 989) and 82% of murders (15 746) are committed by people known to their victims.
Insiders say the police have been conscious for some time that ”social crime” is the largest contributor to South Africa’s crime rate, but decided to highlight it this year when they became frustrated at being the only state agency in the firing line.
A central theme of this year’s crime statistics report, released three months earlier than previous reports, and separated from the SAPS’s annual report after a request from business, is that no major inroads will be made into the violent crime rate unless the rest of government comes to the party.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula and police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi announced on Tuesday that six of the eight contact crimes decreased in 2006/07 by between 8,7% and 3%. But aggravated robbery and murder increased 4,6% and 2,4% in the same period.
The steep rise in aggravated robbery is mainly reflected in a dramatic increase in house robberies (25,4%), particularly in affluent Gauteng suburbs, and in business robberies (52,5%), also mainly in Gauteng.
Nqakula admitted these increases were ”deeply concerning”. But he and the police bosses emphasised that South Africa’s most dangerous criminals are the thousands of people who killed, raped or attacked their relatives or friends.
”There is definitely more emphasis on social factors now,” Deputy National Commissioner André Pruis told the Mail & Guardian. ”We are collaborating with our partners in government. We need to engage them on projects to curb crime.”
Throughout the report, reference is made to socio-economic problems, which cause crime – and that in fixing them, the SAPS’s hands are tied.
It identifies five causes of contact crime: urbanisation, poverty and unemployment, vigilantism, previous offenders and alcohol and drugs.
The statistics highlight the fact that social fabric violence largely affects poorer sections of society: South Africa’s murder capital is Nyanga in Cape Town and its rape capital KwaMashu in Durban.
David Bruce, of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), endorses the report’s emphasis. ”There is no proper engagement in South Africa with how violence impacts on poorer people,” says Bruce. ”The police are trying to address this issue.”
The report says urbanisation is responsible for ”urban unemployment, a massive growth of informal settlements and the disappearance of the rural subsistence economy and social support network”. It creates ”rising expectations and new needs” and the result is often a ”strong growth in relative deprivation caused by the marked and visible contrast between rich and poor”.
Squatter camps are ”extremely difficult to police because there are no fixed (and documented) addresses, street names, stand numbers or house numbers.
”When the police or other emergency services are urgently called to an address in such an area, this is consequently difficult to find. The result is that assistance may arrive long after somebody has been involved in a domestic argument and resultant fight.”
The report highlights the ”lack of social cohesion” in informal settlements and newly established housing schemes for people who are former shack-dwellers.
”People do not know or trust one another and therefore do not form a unified front against criminals. The latter will also be less known and more difficult to identify … if social cohesion is low.”
The SAPS is scathing in its criticism of government’s removal of people who have lived a number of years in informal settlements to new developments. ”The very same social mistake made decades ago under apartheid is repeated when a well-established community … is displaced to a newly built sub-economic township development marked by very high levels of violent crime.”
Urbanisation also exposed young children in small dwellings to sex and there was a lack of sport or other recreational facilities.
On poverty and unemployment, the SAPS argues that ”absolute deprivation” might force people into shoplifting, theft and housebreaking ”to supply their most basic needs”.
The report pleads for urgent research into the relationship between drugs, alcohol and violent behaviour.
CSVR crime prevention specialist Barbara Holtmann says the national injury mortality surveillance system shows that between 40% and 50% of murder victims tested positive for alcohol.
To curb crime steps are needed to prevent underage drinking and the illegal sale of alcohol, she says. ”Alcohol is absolutely devastating our efforts on sustainable development in South Africa.”
At a Business Against Crime breakfast on Wednesday, Nqakula called for better implementation of alcohol consumption laws, particularly by local government. He specifically referred to levels of underage drinking.
The SAPS found that the highest social contact crime ratios were in the Western Cape in respect of murder (60,7 per 100 000 people), indecent assault (59,1) and common assault (739,3). The Northern Cape was highest in attempted murder (107,6), rape (142,8) and aggravated assault (1 091,2).
The highest levels of aggravated and common robbery were recorded in Gauteng.
Contact crimes are ”extremely concentrated in their distribution” with 40% of all the country’s murders being committed in only 8,6% of the land.
The SAPS also determined that the peak time for crime was the summer holidays (November to January), on Saturdays and in the evenings between 6pm and 10pm.
Institute for Security Studies (ISS) researcher Johan Burger agrees with the SAPS’s criticism of government and appealed for better cooperation between the different spheres of government.
”There are things which the police can’t change. The SAPS can’t create infrastructure, build playing grounds for children, create jobs or build houses. Lots of departments have to participate, such as the departments of provincial and local government and social welfare. They cannot all sit back and relax while the SAPS must explain crime.
”There are lots of problems in the SAPS, but it is unreasonable to blame them for everything that goes wrong,” Burger says.
The complete 2006/07 crime statistics are published on www.saps.gov.za
Ten years of crime in South Africa: View table
