Limpopo Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe, says she is concerned about cases of violent crimes reported recently in the province.
Hadebe was speaking during the release the province’s crime statistics in Polokwane.
The province has seen a decrease in serious crimes including murder, rape and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Hadebe however says that the reported cases are still worrying.
“I remain deeply concerned by recent violent crimes that have engulfed the province in terms of missing persons in particular. These cases were reported in areas like Masisi, Ga Mabuela, Zebediela and Hoedspruit. Police continued to investigate this brutal murder that has taken place lately in the province of two tourists from Mossel Bay whose bodies were discovered in the intersection of Levubu and Limpopo River in the Kruger National Park.”
Hadebe says the murder rate has gone down by 2% in the last quarter compared to the fourth quarter last year.
“With the population exceeding six million people, Limpopo province has recorded a murder ratio of 3 to 1 000 inhabitants during the quarter under review, the lowest in the country when you compare to the national average of 8.2%. Murder has decline by 2.2%, indicating that Limpopo is a safer place to live in and not only to live in but also to invest in.”
National stats
Meanwhile, Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia says despite a decrease in a number of crime categories, however, the levels of violence and criminality in South Africa are still unacceptably high.
He says there’s been 58 murders per day during the fourth quarter, that is January to March this year.
Cachalia says while Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal all recorded notable decreases in murders, these four provinces recorded over 80% of all murders in South Africa.
Mixed reactions to Q4 crime statistics:
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