Democratic Alliance (DA) police spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard took Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to task on Wednesday for his failure to release more regular crime statistics.
”Covering up crime won’t make crime go away … no one asked you to protect us from the truth,” she said in the National Assembly during debate on the safety and security budget vote.
Kohler-Barnard criticised Mthethwa for his decision to ”renege” on his predecessor’s [Charles Nqakula’s] assertion that crime statistics would be released twice a year.
”The minister [Mthethwa] in fact told me on a televised discussion that if he had his way we would only be informed of the status of crime once every second year.
”Now we have to wait until September before he releases the statistics, which will by then be 18 months out of date. Hardly a reflection on the cold, hard reality of crime we are experiencing today.”
Kohler-Barnard said that two years ago she knew South Africa’s murder rate was 52 murders a day.
”Today, I have no idea — is it 60 a day, 100 perhaps?
”You are well protected by your bodyguards, minister, as are your Cabinet colleagues, and a million [rand] a month is spent on protecting the president, but the rest of the citizens of South Africa have an absolute right to know just how bad the situation is.”
Experts were in agreement that up-to-date and accurate information on crime was an essential tool in fighting crime and creating real and localised responses.
”What we need are crime statistics updated continuously, using a real-time crime information system. Information that is available to any member of the public via a real-time internet crime database visible at their local police station, which would allow for detailed data analysis.
”Weekly reports generated by the system could be used by the SAPS [South African Police Service] to develop specific responses to localised problems, and the database should be integrated with statistics generated by the departments of justice and correctional services,” she said.
South Africans spent R40-billion a year on private security.
”The reason? On the streets there are great swathes of citizens who no longer trust a man or a woman in uniform.
”I know the government understands this because 18 national departments spent a total of R431,2-million on private security a year ago — so they don’t trust them either.
”We do know that there were over 6 000 complaints against members of the SAPS this past year — 2 772 of those for criminal activities — that equals eight police doing crime each and every day,” Kohler-Barnard said. — Sapa