WOMEN and children in Mzansi are still not safe around the people they know and trust.
This was revealed by Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday, 17 November 2023.
Cele was presenting the quarterly crime statistics of crimes committed between July and September 2023. The minister said even though statistics showed that less women and children were killed in the country, it was disturbing that crime figures showed that far too many women and children were still being attacked.
"Between the period of July and September, 1 514 incidents of attempted murder involving female victims were reported. Furthermore, females were victims in 14 401 assault GBH incidents reported to the police," said Cele.
The minister said children had not been spared from the brutal attacks and abuse. He said 293 children were killed and in the same period about 361 incidents of attempted murder and 1 820 of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm were committed against children.
"As the ministry, we are motivated by the continued availability of evidence collection kits as well as the improvement of support services at cop shops for survivors of sexual violence. The historic DNA backlog which was standing over 240 000 two years ago has now been cleared," he said.
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Cele further said the ministry was also motivated by the SAPS' continued successes in bringing to book gender-based violence and femicide perpetrators.
According to Cele, it was clear that attacks and violence meted out on women, children, the elderly and the most vulnerable in this country remained shameful.
Speaking about murder statistics, Cele said the second consecutive drop in the country's murder figures was no way a claim of victory by the police.
"We believe the declines are as a result of a combination of operatiomal policing strategies as well as policy interventions that we are seeing an improvement in crime. These statistics also give us a sober analysis of the effectiveness of policing efforts to keep South Africans and their properties safe," he said.
Cele assured South Africans that law enforcement agencies would be out in full force to maintain law and order this coming festive season.
