Jozi not SA’s murder capital

30 September 2015

 

Contrary to long-held belief, Johannesburg is not the “murder capital” of South Africa.

 

According to the 2014 crime statistics released by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko yesterday, Johannesburg does not feature among the top 10 police precincts with the highest murder statistics in the country.

 

The City of Cape Town’s Nyanga police precinct tops the list with a total of 305 murders reported in 2014.  Altogether, six Cape Town police precincts – Nyanga, Harare, Delft, Mitchells Plain, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha – feature on the list, accounting for 1 087 murders reported in South Africa during the year under review. 

 

The 10th police precinct on the list – Kwa-Mashu E in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal – accounted for 128 murders. However, two Johannesburg police areas – Johannesburg Central and Honeydew – feature highly on the list of police precincts with the highest number of reported crimes in the country.

 

Johannesburg Central is fourth on the list with 14 791 reported cases, while Honeydew is sixth with 13 561 reported cases. Crimes reported in Johannesburg mostly related to burglaries at residential areas, theft of cars, assaults with intent to do grievous bodily harm, common robbery and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Four of the City’s precincts – Booysens, Roodepoort, Honeydew and Johannesburg Central – reported the most cases of theft of cars – a total of 1 045.

 

Roodepoort is No 5 on the top 10 list of precincts with the highest number of residential burglaries in the country. About 1 450 residential burglaries were reported in the precinct in 2014. On the property-related crime list, Johannesburg Central is fourth with 564 cases. It is also No 1 on common robbery list, with 1 289 cases reported.

On cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, 1 030 were reported in Hillbrow, 940 in Moroka and 928 in Alexandra.