Gauteng police call for conflict de-escalation, rather than violence

Gauteng police are renewing their calls to the public to de-escalate conflicts rather than resort to violence.

This comes after the provincial Police Commissioner Tommy Mthombeni briefed the Gauteng Legislature Community Safety Committee on crime statistics.

He noted that gender-based violence and femicide decreased by 9.9 percent with 209 fewer cases recorded compared with the previous year.

Mthombeni says contact crime has shown a decline.

“The overall contact crime has decreased by 1 136 counts, representing a reduction of 3%.

Contact crime subcategories, namely attempted murder, assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, common assault, have however increased.

Our biggest concern is that these subcategories are feeders of incidents where it leads to murder, attempted murder.

Although murder has decreased during this quarter, under review, the numbers remain significantly high and are extremely concerning.”