The number of murders in South Africa in 2009 fell to the lowest level since apartheid, but deadly violence still bedevils the nation's shantytowns, police said in their annual report on Thursday.
The number of murders fell 8.6 per cent to 16,834 in the year to March, police minister Nathi Mthethwa told a news conference.
"The murder figure fell below the 17,000 mark, compared to 26,877 in the 1995-1996 fiscal year," the first year that statistics were kept following the first multi-racial elections in 1994, he said.
"Indeed, the tide is turning against crime and criminals, as we push back the frontiers of evil."
The report showed that violent crime generally was on the decline, with attempted murders down by 6.1 per cent and sexual offences down by 4.4 per cent, he said.
"It remains our firm and achievable belief that while there is still significant work to be done in ensuring our people are and feel safe, we have shown that we are certainly up to the task and are capable of addressing the challenges that lie ahead," Mthethwa added.
South African police statistician Chris de Kock said the sharp decline in murders was mainly due to a drop in the number of killings associated with robberies, which make up about 15 per cent of the total.
"The murders did not drop so much because people stopped killing each other during fights, but because robberies dropped," he said.
Most murders occur in South Africa's poorest neighbourhoods where unemployment is rife and people live in shacks along dark and unmarked dirt paths.
The country saw 16,834 murders, or an average 46 killings a day. Police recorded another 17,410 attempted murders and more than 205,000 cases of serious assault.
Police also registered more than 68,000 sexual offences, but readily admit that only a fraction of sexual crimes are ever reported.
Robberies at businesses showed a 4.4 per cent increase, mainly targetting small enterprises such as neighbourhood shops and street vendors, police said.
For most violent crimes, the killer and the victim usually know each other, and often alcohol is involved, De Kock said.
"Social murder is a much more difficult thing to fight. Social conditions must change, people must change their lifestyle, and that will be only possible if the conditions in the country change," he said.
"There must be more employment, more investment, more proper human settlements... That can take quite a while."
National police chief Bheki Cele said the decrease was driven by efforts to heighten the visibility of police, with new units created and more officers on the ground.
That tactic was the cornerstone of police efforts during the football World Cup, when preliminary reports from parts of Johannesburg indicated a sharp drop in crime across the board.
The report did not cover the period of the World Cup, which was held June 11-July 11, but police reinforcements for the games began rolling out in the first part of the year.
An extra 44,000 police were recruited in the run-up to the tournament, officers who are now folded into the normal forces. South Africa also invested heavily in training and new equipment.
"South Africans have felt safer in the World Cup year than they have for some time," said Dianne Kohler Barnard, shadow police minister for the opposition Democratic Alliance.
"Special measures during the tournament may translate into even greater measurable outcomes and demonstrate the efficacy of specifically visible policing," she said in a statement.
Share
