Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, delivered the national crime statistics and gave a breakdown of sexual offences in the Free State. He mentioned Contact Sexual Offence cases happen to be the lowest at 21, while recorded Attempted Sexual Offence cases sit at 66 in the province, and Sexual Assault cases are 143. 

The DA's spokesperson for Police in the Provincial Legislature, Leona Klyenhans, said this is an increase of 65% in sexual offences as compared to previous statistics. DA’s Member of Parliament, Andrew Whitfield, explained that for the first time in South Africa, rapes have increased to above 135 rapes every single day, as the country records 12 419 rape cases.

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The statistics also revealed murder cases have increased in the province, with 275 cases recorded for the third quarter – an increase of 13.2% from the previous 243. 

Commenting on the national murder stats, Whitfield said 1101 murders were recorded – about 12 murders per day, 1 636 attempted murders, which is an estimation of 17.8 per day, and 17 271 assaults, which is an average of 187.7 per day. 

“A horrific escalation in mass shootings further exposes the complete failure of crime intelligence to prevent the circulation of illegal firearms and to anticipate these terrifying incidents. In quarter 2, between July and September 2022, 578 murders in 250 cases of mass shootings were reported and in the 92 days of the third quarter, 294 cases of mass shootings took place, killing 665 people,” he stated.

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Back in the Free State, Kleynhans made reference to how the DA has warned for several years that the under-resourcing of police, lack of SAPS officers, and the total neglect of police stations would eventually lead to crime getting out of control. “A stellar example is the Harrismith police station serving a population of 180 000, with two satellite police stations no longer open due to manpower shortages. This large police station also has no suitable generator to allow proper services to be rendered during blackouts or power outages.”

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