afrol News, 1 July - South Africa (SA) has recorded an impressive decrease in murder and rape in the past year though crime remained at high levels, the country's safety and security minister said on Monday.

With government extreme measures to combat crime in preparation for Africa's big event, 2010 Soccer world cup, a decline viewed as a positive indicator to achieve crime free environment by 2010.

The latest figures show that all the country's contact crimes have come down in the past year by an overall 6.4 per cent.

Annual crime statistics showed number of murders fell 4.7 percent between 1 April 2007 and 31 March, 2008, with 18,487 murders reported in the country of 50 million people, however still leaving SA among the worst in the world.

Rape fell by 8.8 percent to over 36,000 reported cases while attempted murders also were down 7.5 percent in the past 12 months.

"Government is still concerned that, while they are going down, the levels of crime continue to be unacceptably high," Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said.

Mr Ngakula said SA government had hoped for a bigger drop in serious crime after embarking on a plan to put police officers on the streets.

SA however saw a rise in robberies, with break-ins and hold-ups at stores and other businesses shooting up almost 50 percent. There were a further 602 more car hijackings in the past year.

Responding to new statistics, Democratic Alliance (DA) has questioned accuracy of the latest crime statistics released on Monday, saying decreases in some categories simply imply under reporting of such crimes.

"The DA is treating the latest release of crime statistics with the deepest scepticism," DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler Barnard said in a statement.

Ms Kohler Barnard said statistics released do not reflect what is on the ground, saying people rarely report crime at police stations as they are never attended to by police.

DA says necessary leadership and proper policies in place would contribute to reduction of crime rate in SA.

Critics say corruption and other flaws in the justice system have paved way for criminals to evade prosecution, with cases often being thrown out of court for lack of evidence and poor investigative procedures by police officials.

With SA expecting visitors for the world cup, critics say the current crime rate would deter tourism and foreign investment.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories