Cape Town - Assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, common assault and robbery lead the Western Cape police’s recorded crime statistics for the third quarter of 2022.

The Western Cape MEC for Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen, engaged the Western Cape police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile on the third-quarter crime statistics for the province that had been released at Mfuleni police station on Tuesday.

The statistics reveal that from October-December 2022, the ratio for assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm was 98.5 per 100 000 of the population, while the ratio for common assault was 165 per 100 000 for the quarter.

The data view shows that common robbery had a ratio of 36.6 and rape had recorded a ratio of 20.9 per 100 000 for the quarter.

In the community-reported crimes, the Western Cape has seen a record of 80 646 crime cases compared to 72 547 for 2021, with the Cape Winelands District having a large number cases, hitting 11 669, while in 2021 the district had 10 462.

Contact crimes where the victims are the targets of violence or instances where the victims are in the vicinity of property that criminals target and are subjected to the use of or threats of violence by perpetrators has recorded 4340 cases, an increase of 15.8%, with assault cases leading with 2 184.

Selected contact crimes and gender-based violence cases against women and children record a decrease of -17.2%. Murders of women made up 16.1% of the total.

There were 239 recorded murders involving causative factors in the Western Cape, followed by gang-related cases.

Firearms are most frequently used instruments for murder (in 47.8% of reported cases), followed by knives (21.9%), and sharp Instruments (12.5%).

Meanwhile, Nyanga led the way in terms of robbery with aggravating circumstances with 16.7% of cases, and followed by Khayelitsha with an increase of -6.8% compared to the previous quarter.

Over the three months truck hijackings took centre stage in the City of Cape Town, while malicious damage to property has decreased 6.2% with the City of Cape Town again leading with 4 866 cases.

The commercial crime trends over the period of three months has seen a decrease of 2.3%.

Meanwhile, the data shows that Mitchells Plain is leading in terms of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition with 75 counts and it is followed by Delft in second spot with 57 counts.

Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs reflected an increase of 83.6% within the City of Cape Town, with 1 546 cases for the quarter under review.

IOL