The acting police commissioner, Henriette de Waal, on Thursday revealed that the province recorded a decrease of 2 cases in terms of murder and 77 cases in terms of sexual assaults compared to the same period in the last financial year. She says the decrease, specifically in these two categories, is significant because the two are normally amongst categories with high numbers in the province. De Waal announced that the province had a drop in cases of common robbery with a drop of 46 cases, robbery with aggravating circumstances with a decrease of 46 cases, and also recorded a drop of 430 cases in terms of contact crimes.

“I think one element that we need to take into consideration is that we were - during this quarter of January to March - in lockdown level 3, until the end of February and that we then continued with level 1 during March 2021. Now, automatically your lockdowns do have an impact on the crime situation in terms of your aggravated robberies. We saw a decrease in your carjacking, and your robberies at residential premises,” she adds.

She says, amongst others, arson cases also decreased by 9 cases, compared to the same period in the last financial year. Malicious property damage increased with 11 cases, and mostly what contributed to that was also mostly due to the protest actions during this quarter.

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