| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 15, 2001 |
About 21,000 S. Africans Murdered Annually |
More South Africans are being murdered annually than in any open conflict such as the one in the Middle East, the South African police said on Wednesday.
About 21,000 people were murdered in the country last year as compared with around 6,000 killed in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
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More South Africans are being murdered annually than in any open conflict such as the one in the Middle East, the South African police said on Wednesday.
About 21,000 people were murdered in the country last year as compared with around 6,000 killed in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, where tanks and other war machinery were being used, said Deputy National Police Commissioner Andre Pruis at a conference on crime prevention in Pretoria.
"In the recent tragedy (the September 11 terror attacks) in the United States of America, 5,000 people were killed... far less than the number of people murdered in South Africa last year," the commissioner said.
The murder rate in the country was unacceptable and required action from all South Africans, he stressed, saying that the same applied to the high level of rape incidents in the country.
Pruis said new crime figures to be released soon by Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete would show that the incidence of serious crime remained high.
He said socio-economic development was crucial in the fight against crime and local governments could play a central role in a program to uplift local communities.
"This social and economic development plan should ensure that people get jobs. If they have jobs... they are able to feed themselves and their families, they will have no reason to commit crime," he said.
He recommended a four-pronged strategy to reduce crimes, which included the profiling of perpetrators and the use of technological devices.
Setting up crime control television cameras in the city centers of Cape Town and Durban had contributed much to bring down crime, he said.
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