Action Society is deeply concerned with the latest revelation of unsolved crimes in South Africa. Between 2018 and 2024, 76 655 murders and 40 089 attempted murders in South Africa were closed and went unsolved; these cases were closed, placed in storage and never opened again. Rape cases that go unsolved totaled up 61 740 with unsolved sexual assault cases numbering at 5 523. The worst number was unsolved aggravated robbery cases which totaled at 256 162 and unsolved kidnapping cases coming in at 9 114.
To make matters even worse, South Africa has a shortage of 8 500 detectives and 527 voluntarily left the force from October 1 2023 to July 19 2024, making it almost impossible for these crimes to be solved.
“This is a massive issue. We have repeatedly stated that we need to stop focusing only on the poorly trained troops on the ground. But we need to ensure there are specialised personnel that can investigate these cases to the very end and bring justice to victims,” said Action Society spokesperson, Juanita du Preez.
The crime trends in South Africa keep on heading toward a state that resembles complete anarchy. It seems as though some, but definitely not all, members of our police sit with their boots on their desks, awaiting their latest paychecks while South Africans suffer and fear for their lives. There are many great cops who have a great passion for their work and are very good at it, but a rotten few give them a bad name.
“Over recent years South Africa has come to resemble a type of war zone and nobody feels safe in their homes anymore. Political appointments in police ranks have robbed the South African Police Service (SAPS) of the skills to solve crime,” said Juanita du Preez.
Much of this can be attributed to the previous minister of policies’ disastrous handling of crime and police resources in South Africa. Under his auspices, crime in South Africa went into a complete downward spiral and trust in police plummeted to an all time low with political interference coupled with an incompetent team.
“The sheer number of unsolved cases are almost unfathomable. How can things have been allowed to get this bad? However there is light at the end of the tunnel as we have a new minister of police at the helm, but he has a very big mess to clean up. We have already reached out to minister Mchunu with our suggested solutions on how we can ameliorate the crime situation in the country. We trust that he is the right man for the job and that our partnership can be fruitful and make our beautiful country safe once again for all South Africans,” concluded Juanita du Preez.
