About 1,403 people were murdered in Gauteng between January and March this year, increasing the provincial murder rate to 45.2%. Arguments, misunderstanding and road rage are allegedly some of the factors contributing to the increase in murders in Gauteng.
This is according to Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, the Gauteng police commissioner during a crime statistics briefing held at the Randfontein Municipality Hall on Tuesday morning. Mawela said 45.2% increase in murders amounts to 1,403 people who were murdered during the period of January to March 2022. This means that 437 more people were killed compared to the same period last year.
In his response to the statistics which show a huge increase of 45.2% in murder overall in the province, Mawela said factors that contributed to this showed that people could not resolve their conflicts peacefully.
He said: “We resort to violence every time there is conflict amongst ourselves. We have also observed these tendencies of mass killings whereby somebody comes and shoots randomly at a lot of people at the same time.
“We have observed it. Even in Kagiso [West of Johannesburg]- we do have the trigger-happy people [who] find people seated around the table and enjoying themselves, and they just shoot at them randomly.”
Mawela said there are a number of reasons that caused the increase in crimes across the province including the uplifting of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions; community riots and opening of liquor outlets for extended hours. He said while the lockdown restrictions were in place, people were not allowed to move as they pleased and as a result the crime rate decreased.
“The crime situation of the period under review is of greatest concern and disappointment for us SAPS Gauteng and for the people of this province,” Mawela said.