Recent data released by Statistics South Africa reveals a rise in household crimes, including housebreaking, home robbery, and vehicle theft, during the 12 months leading up to the survey, compared to the previous year.
Similarly, individual crimes have also seen an increase, except for consumer fraud and vehicle hijackings, which declined in the 2022/23 period.
The Governance, Public Safety, and Justice Survey (GPSJS) for 2022/23 highlights that the percentage of adults aged 16 and older who felt safe walking alone in their neighborhoods during the day decreased slightly from 81.3% in 2021/22 to 80.8% in 2022/23.
Housebreaking remains the most prevalent crime experienced by households in South Africa, with approximately 1.1 million households encountering housebreaking incidents in the 2022/23 period. This represents about 5.7% of households in the country, accounting for an estimated 1.6 million housebreaking incidents.
Of the households affected by housebreaking, around 51% reported some or all of the incidents to the police. This percentage declined from 59.2% in 2021/22 to 51.4% in 2022/23.
The survey indicates that housebreaking was more frequently experienced by male-headed households and households in non-metropolitan areas.
The second most common type of crime affecting households in South Africa was home robbery, impacting 195,000 households.
Approximately 238,000 home robberies occurred in 2022/23, representing 1% of households. About 57% of households that experienced home robbery reported some or all of the incidents to the police, down from 66.4% in 2021/22 to 56.8% in 2022/23.
The GPSJS report also explores social cohesion, focusing on factors like knowing one’s neighbors, trust in neighbors, and participation in community forums.
The data indicates that the proportion of households knowing their neighbors’ names increased from 91.9% in 2019/20 to 93.3% in 2022/23. However, the percentage of households willing to ask their neighbors to watch their homes when away dropped slightly from 85.8% in 2019/20 to 84.7% in 2022/23.
Additionally, over 50% of households stated they had no knowledge of active forums addressing community-related issues in their areas.
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