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While there was a slight decrease in murders in Gauteng between July and September, more women and children were killed compared to the same period the previous year, with more children also facing attempted murder and assault charges.
Gauteng police tabled the second quarter crime statistics for the 2024/25 year before the provincial portfolio committee on community safety on Friday, which saw an overall decrease in most major crimes.
Provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Tommy Mthombeni said Gauteng witnessed a 6% reduction in crime, meaning “crime reports went down by 6,525 counts”. He said Gauteng was the only province that managed to reduce 15 of the 17 community reported crimes, accounting for 26.9% of the national overall crime rate.
Contact crimes, which include murder, attempted murder, assault GBH, common assault and aggravated robbery, decreased in the quarter by 7.6%, said Mthombeni.
Murder decreased by 2.8%, meaning 46 less counts were reported during the quarter with Johannesburg having the largest decrease of 10.3% with 70 less murders reported. This was followed by Tshwane which reduced by 29 counts and Ekurhuleni recorded 27 fewer counts.
However, the West Rand had 51 more murders compared to the same three-month period last year, while Sedibeng recorded a 19.9% increase in murder cases with 29 more murders than last year.
Statistics presented by Brig Mpho Chakalane showed that murder increased among women and children: 264 more women were killed between July and September, a 53.5% increase (92 counts). However, attempted murder of women decreased by 2% and assault GBH was down by 383 counts to 2,742 cases.
The three crimes however increased when it came to children as 15 more minors were killed, increasing the child murder rate by 44.1% to 49 from 34 reported cases.
“For attempted murder an increase also of 3% and assault GBH, 12 more [reported cases],” Chakalane said.
Attempted murder of children went up by 6% while assault GBH saw a 4.3% rise.