Rising murders a blow to SAfrica crime war
PRETORIA, July 3 (Reuters) Murders, carjackings and violent robberies rose in South Africa in the past year, dealing a blow to efforts to reduce one of the world's highest crime rates before the country hosts the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The news came less than six months after President Thabo Mbeki acknowledged that many South Africans were living in fear of being murdered, raped or assaulted by criminals and vowed to beef up the police to make streets safer.
That effort has not yet borne fruit, according to the South African Police Service (SAPS), which reported today that the country's murder rate jumped 2.4 per cent between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007.
There were 19,202 murders during the period, the annual crime statistics showed.
Bank robberies more than doubled and cash-in-transit heists were up almost 22 percent, according to authorities. Burglaries and carjackings -- two crimes often on the minds of South Africans -- registered sharp increases as well.
''The fact that instances of serious and violent crime are very high is disconcerting and unacceptable,'' Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said in a press conference in the capital Pretoria after the data was released.
MORE POLICE Nqakula, who travelled to Europe earlier this year to assure foreign investors that the war on crime was being won, noted that headway was being made on several fronts, with the number of rapes, non-violent assaults and street robberies falling.
An average of 144 women reported being raped every day in South Africa during the latest 12-month reporting period, a 4.2 per cent drop.
Nqakula assured worried South Africans as well as those considering visiting from overseas that the government would keep its pledge to hire and train more police officers and invest in modern technology to track and arrest criminals.
Tackling crime is one of the biggest challenges facing the ruling African National Congress, though the issue barely registered among delegates who met at a policy conference outside Johannesburg last week.
Opposition parties and business leaders fret that, if left unchecked, high levels of crime could deter tourism and foreign investment in Africa's biggest economy and derail its chances of hosting a successful World Cup in three years time.
The month-long tournament begins on June 11, 2010 and South Africa expects 360,000 foreigners to attend.
But South Africa's top police officer downplayed concerns today, noting that there would be about 20 per cent more police officers in uniform for the World Cup and that June and July were the months of the year when crime traditionally ebbed.
''I
have
no
sleepless
nights
about
2010,''
Jackie
Selebi,
the
country's
police
commissioner,
said.
''We
can
host
that
World
Cup
without
a
lot
of
problems.''
REUTERS
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