More than 7 555 people were murdered in South Africa between October and December 2022, putting the murder rate at 12.4 per capita, Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Friday.
Cele and national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola were presenting quarterly statistics reflecting on crimes reported and detected by the police in the three-month period.
Out of the 7 555 people murdered, 3 144 were killed with a firearm. In the past 12 months alone, the police said they permanently got rid of 65 519 firearms. Cele said the police will continue to intensify operations to rid communities of illegal firearms and control the rise in violent crimes to ensure safety.
“SAPS [the police] will continue to intensify operations to detect and remove illegal firearms and ammunition while legislation intervention in the amendment to the Firearms Control Act, to address the availability of guns in our communities, is under way,” Cele said.
“Another call we are responding to is the escalation of violent crimes in our communities. These crime statistics show that 7 555 people were murdered between October and December 2022.”
Meanwhile, the country is currently mourning the death of rapper Kiernan Forbes, affectionately known by his stage name AKA.
Forbes was ambushed outside the Wish restaurant in Durban on Friday evening, with many saying the award-winning rapper’s death was in retaliation for his late fiancé Anele Tembe’s death.
Anele died tragically when she fell from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town in April 2021. At the time, her father Moses Tembe said he did not believe his daughter died by suicide.
It was revealed by media reports on Friday that the Tembe family, through their legal representatives, made submissions to the National Prosecuting Authority stating that the institution had missed crucial evidence when it concluded not to prosecute Forbes.
In the letter, the family alleges that Forbes and Anele were involved a physical fight before she allegedly fell from the 10th floor. The family noted that in the list of evidence missed, are records about the blood found in the couple’s hotel room, and the distance from which Anele’s body was found.
The family said she was found about four to five metres from the hotel from which she supposedly fell, alleging that she was either thrown out or pushed out of the building, because a person who committed suicide would have landed about 2 metres from the building.
This raised suspicions of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) on Twitter, with many complaining that the timing for the revelation is not good.
Nonetheless, GBV is not a new phenomenon in the country, as the crimes escalate from time to time. According to Cele, 4 992 culprits were arrested for GBVF between October and December, and 71 accused were sentenced to 89 life sentences.
Two-hundred and nineteen accused persons were sentenced to between one and nine years imprisonment, culminating in a total of 1 079 years in prison. One-hundred and forty three more accused persons were handed between 10 to 19 years in jail, which is a combined sentence of 2 063 years imprisonment.
Cele said: “It is alarming that a total of 5 935 rape incidents took place at the residence of the perpetrator/victim, including residences known by victims/perpetrator, these are family, friends and neighbours.
“We welcome the sentencing of the killer of the eight-year-old Tazne van Wyk, who was this week convicted to nine life sentences and 259 and a half years behind bars for the gruesome murder and rape of the young girl.”
