Police: South Africa losing war on violent crime (Roundup)

Sep 22, 2009, 15:40 GMT

Johannesburg - South Africa's is failing to win the war against violent crime, police statistics showed Tuesday, as the country prepares to host the football World Cup in nine months time.

New figures showed that the country's murder rate has barely fallen on a year ago - 50 people are still murdered each day in the country and another 50 the victims of an attempted murder.

Between April 2008 and March 2009, 18,148 people were murdered, or about 49.7 people every day, down only fractionally from 18,487 for the same period the previous year, South African Police Service statistics showed.

A further 18,298 people suffered an attempt on their life, also marginally down on 2007/20008, while the number of sexual offences, vehicle hijackings and home and business robberies had all increased markedly over the past 12 months.

The statistics show that efforts by government to improve security in the run-up to the World Cup, including recruiting thousands more police officers, have yet to yield significant results.

The absence of a police commissioner for the six months between January and July, between the time corruption-accused former commissioner Jackie Selebi was placed on leave and his successor Bheki Cele was named, stymied the crime-fighting effort.

Opposition parties reacted with alarm to the statistics. The official opposition Democratic Alliance accused the ruling African National Congress of deliberately withholding the statistics until April's general elections had passed.

'There are war zones with lower rates of killing,' a spokesman for another, smaller party, the United Democratic Movement, remarked.

Most of the violent crime takes place in the black townships, where millions of people live in cramped, often squalid conditions and unemployment is rising on the back of the global recession.

'A greater proportion of murders, rapes and other crimes take place among acquaintances, particularly in poor communities where living conditions do not allow for decent family and social life,' Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthetwa remarked.

In most cases, the murderers and their victims are known to each other, police also pointed out.

This year's statistics, which were released three months late, did not, unlike previous years, give a breakdown for rape.

South Africa's rape rates are believed to be among the highest - if not the highest - in the world. Last year's statistics showed around 132 cases of rape were reported each day, with the real figure believed to be much higher because most cases go unreported.

Police this year gave an aggregated figure for sexual offences, which totalled 71,500 in total, a 12 per cent increase on the 2007/2008 figure.

Vehicle hijackings increased to 14,915 from 14,201 a year ago.

The figures were likely to stoke fresh alarm about the security of the around 400,000 visitors expected at next year's football World Cup, which South Africa is the first African country to host.

World football body FIFA said it would examine the statistics before reacting.

South Africa has persistently downplayed concerns about the safety of visitors at the tournament, pointing to its success in hosting a string of major international sporting tournaments in recent years.

The country's new top policeman Cele has vowed a tough approach on crime and has urged police to 'fight fire with fire.'