The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Mr Ian Cameron, has expressed concern that solely 58% of burglary victims report the crime to the police, primarily as a result of they consider that the South African Police Service (SAPS) is not going to do something about it. The Chairperson was responding to Statistics South Africa’s launch of the 2023/24 Governance, Public Security and Justice Survey.
“The belief deficit between the SAPS and communities is a serious Achilles heel within the battle towards crime. It’s as much as the South African Police Service to work laborious, via deeds and motion, to reverse this adverse sentiment,” Mr Cameron stated.
The Chairperson welcomed the discharge of the survey, because it provides a deeper evaluation of the crime image within the nation. What’s worrying, Mr Cameron stated, was the overall decline in reporting acts of crime throughout the board, particularly sexual offences.
“The decline in reporting sexual offences from 92.3% to 78.4% needs to be reversed via coaching of cops to adequately deal with sexual-related crimes to stop secondary victimisation. Additionally, the efficient investigation of crimes resulting in prosecution and the fixed updating of victims will improve belief between the police and victims,” Mr Cameron emphasised.
“This can be very regarding, as SAPS isn’t presently outfitted to essentially help victims and sadly when safety orders will not be adequately enforced victims lose religion within the system,” Mr Cameron stated. “A part of the price range changes the committee desires to suggest may also help deal with a few of these shortcomings,” he added.
In the meantime, the Chairperson underscored the intense concern that the usage of illicit firearms, the weapons of selection in lots of legal incidents, continues unabated. “We want extra capability throughout the SAPS to do destruction of firearms handed in and seized by police, in addition to efficient consequence administration towards these concerned in smuggling firearms. The benefit with which criminals entry firearms is unacceptable,” Mr Cameron stated.
The Chairperson additionally highlighted that it’s unacceptable that individuals really feel unsafe strolling the road after darkish. Statistics SA revealed that this worry is especially pronounced amongst girls, who reported feeling much less protected strolling of their neighbourhoods after darkish than males. Moreover, the proportion of people that really feel protected strolling alone throughout the day fell from 86,6% in 2019/20 to 84,8% in 2020/21, persevering with to say no all through the reporting interval and reaching 80,4% in 2023/24. The Chairperson referred to as for heightened police visibility to curb this worrying development.
Moreover, the Chairperson inspired communities to actively take part in neighborhood neighbourhood watches and neighborhood police boards, and to proceed to be the ears and eyes of the police. “It’s essential that communities exhaust all lawful cures to assist stop and fight crimes as we work to assist regulate sources and price range of the SAPS,” Mr Cameron stated.
In the meantime, the Chairperson welcomed yesterday’s multidisciplinary operation undertaken in eThekwini the place at the very least 123 undocumented international nationals had been arrested. The police additionally recovered counterfeit US {dollars} equal to R4.1 million, seized 117 rounds of ammunition of assorted firearm calibres and a considerable amount of liquor. Additionally, one suspect was arrested after he was present in possession of cocaine, crystal meth and an undisclosed amount of cash. Mr Cameron emphasised that these sorts of disruptive operations are needed within the battle towards crime, and he referred to as the SAPS to accentuate such operations.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.