ISS says governments approach to crime is not working

Lusanda Bill
20 September 2013

The Institute for Security Studies said the annual crime statistics were released by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Thursday were disturbing. 

Senior Researcher at the ISS Johan Burger said government’s approach in fighting crime is not working. 

Minister Mthethwa revealed that for the first time in six years, the number of murders in the country has increased. 

Burger said in the presentation there was too much focus on the crimes that were going down and these were mostly of a less serious nature and also some property crimes.  Far too little focus was given to the serious crimes and violent crimes that are on the increase. 

Burger added that it is a worrying factor that violent crimes were on an upward trend.

Meanwhile there has been a call for the stats to be released monthly. 

ISS Senior Researcher Johan Burger said stats released monthly would help communities to see what is happening in their neighbourhoods and start acting without the help of police. 

Burger added that crime stats that they had two days ago were from 18 months ago, which show that the stats might not be relevant now.