Milnerton is ranked 17th in the country for the “other serious crimes” category in the latest crime statistics, for the third quarter of the 2021/22 financial year, October to December 2021.
The precinct also ranked sixth for shoplifting, which rose 3.4% from 88 cases in the 2020/21 third quarter to 91 cases in the 2021/22 third quarter.
“Other serious crimes” refer to theft, shoplifting and commercial crimes. Commercial crimes are acts of corruption, money laundering, fraud and forgery.
Milnerton’s “other serious crimes” rose by 1.6% from 496 to 504 cases.
Table View ranks 20th in the country for commercial crimes and 21st for “other serious crimes”. Table View’s commercial crimes rose 27%, from 137 to 174 cases, and “other serious crimes” increased by 1.4%, from 486 to 493 cases.
Police Minister Bheki Cele released the stats in Parliament on Friday February 18.
Nationally, murders went up by 8.9%, from 6 279 cases to 6 859 and included the killing of 902 women and 352 children.
Rapes dropped 7.4%, from 12 218 to 11 315 cases, and sexual assaults by 13.4%, from 2 390 to 2 069 cases.
Minister Cele said gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) remained a priority for SAPS.
“I again call on all SAPS members to continue to improve their responses and service delivery to victims and survivors of GBVF at station level. Dedicated GBVF desks are now available at 381 police stations across the country. 91 489 police officers have been trained in victim empowerment, domestic violence and sexual offence-related problems,” he said.
The minister said that by the end of March this year, more than 1 000 police stations in the country would have a GBVF help desk.
In the Western Cape, murders decreased by 6.9%, from 1 134 to 1 056 cases. Attempted murder went down by 24.5%, from 1 093 to 825 cases, while rape also went down by 13%, from 1 502 to 1 307 cases.
The nation’s murder capital is Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal which saw a 30.3% increase in murders, from 66 cases to 86 cases. Inanda is closely followed by Delft with 81 murders.
Closer to home, attempted murders rose by 333.3% in Milnerton, from three cases to 13. Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm (assault GBH) rose from 56 to 79 cases, while common assault rose 11.8%, from 144 to 161 cases. Murders increased from 19 to 20.
Table View recorded a 300% increase in sexual assault cases, from two to eight cases. Attempted murder rose from 19 to 22 cases. Murders dropped from 10 to nine, and rape dropped 13.3%, from 15 to 13 cases.
Table View SAPS spokeswoman Captain Adriana Chandler said the station was not permitted to comment on the recent crime stats and referred questions to provincial SAPS. However, she said the station had run many awareness campaigns about commercial crimes.
“The station commander also addressed this specific crime at the SAPS imbizo we had recently,” she said.
In Melkbosstrand, things were much quieter. There were no murders reported and no attempted murders. There was one rape case and one attempted rape case. The most significant shift in numbers was assault GBH which went up by 600%, from one to seven cases. Commercial crimes went up by 111.1%, from nine to 19 cases.
The Bothasig precinct, which covers the Bothasig and Edgemead areas, recorded zero murders, two rapes and three sexual offences. The most common crimes in that precinct were theft out of motor vehicles with 27 cases, a 42.7% increase, and commercial crimes, which went up from 26 to 47 cases. Although residential burglaries dropped by 34.1%, there were still 27 cases.
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who recently celebrated 100 days in office, said in a statement that the City prioritised funding for safety and security to combat crime in Cape Town where SAPS had failed.
“We have already seen the impact of these programmes in the crime statistics announced last week. The Law Enforcement Advancement Plan has delivered 1100 officers to date in communities impacted by high crime rates. Significant murder rate decreases were recorded in Kraaifontein at 40.5%, Nyanga at 24.1%, Khayelitsha at 21.1%, and Harare at 14.5%, which are all in the top-30 stations nationally for this category,” he said.
