Western Cape Premier Alan Winde is calling on all law enforcement agencies in the province, not to let their guards down following the reduction in the murder rate.
Winde says the improvement in the recent crime statistics shows the commitment by agencies to address crime in the province.
The Cape recorded the highest decrease in the country in the murder rate, with 14.1% between January and March 2023.
The stats showed that 872 murder cases have been recorded in the province in the first three months of the year.
Out of the seven regions in the province, an increase was only recorded in the Overberg.
According to provincial police commissioner, Thembisile Patekile the deployment of policing resources from affluent police stations in Cape Town to those on the Cape Flats, contributed to the drop in the province’s murder rate.
Nearly 700 officers from Cape Town Central, Woodstock, Sea Point, and Camps Bay, were moved to Cape Flats in 2022.
Physical resources such as vehicles and laptops followed that.
Winde says the province needs to start now with its plans on how to improve further.
“It’s encouraging with the numbers, and I welcome them. We will make them available, but we also have to go back to our systems. Â We need to know why and what caused the reduction, what we should be doing differently, who is going to be doing it and when we are going to get it done”.
