Bheki Cele cites alcohol ban for drastic drop in murders, rapes, hijackings

The stringent regulation of alcohol during lockdown has led to a major decline in violent crimes, says police minister Bheki Cele.

Murder, rape, hijackings and robbery with aggravating circumstances are down drastically in comparison with last year.

Cele, who was addressing journalists in Durban on Wednesday, said the the ban on alcohol had a major role to play in the reduction of crime.

Comparing stats between March and April 2019 with the same period this year, Cele said contact and the trio crimes were drastically down.

Murder was down by 72% with 1,542 cases recorded in 2019 compared with 432 this year. Rape was down 87.2% with 2,908 rapes in 2019 compared with 371 under lockdown.

Assault GBH was down 85.2% with 11,876 cases recorded in 2019 compared with 1,758 under lockdown. Attempted murder was down 65.9% with 443 cases recorded under lockdown compared with 1,300 last year.

Robbery with aggravating circumstances was down 69.6% (2,022 cases vs 6,654).

Carjacking was down 80.9% (219 cases vs 1,146).

Robbery at non-residential premises was down 65.5% with 464 cases being reported as opposed to 1,345 in the previous year.

Robbery at residential premises was down 53.8% under lockdown, with 664 cases vs 1,437 last year.

The lockdown was implemented on March 27.