With only three years left to go the 2010 World Cup, South Africa has failed to make significant inroads in curbing its towering crime levels, with statistics released Tuesday showing an increase in murders, car hijackings and home invasions, according to dpa. Between March 2006 and March 2007 the number of murders rose 2.4 per cent to 19,202, or 53 murders every day, annual police figures showed. Car hijackings increased by 6 per cent to 13,599 and residential robberies jumped by 25.4 per cent to 12,761 over the last 12 months. Although common robbery - robbery without violence - fell by 5.8 per cent, aggravated robberies increased 4.6 per cent and attacks on banks and businesses also skyrocketed. Bank robberies increased by 118 per cent to 129 a year, or two a week, while robberies of businesses shot up 52.5 per cent, pointing to a growing professionalism among criminals. "There are probably more crime syndicates working in this country that we know about. That is something we should be worried about," said Johan Burger, a former senior police officer and researcher on crime at the Institute for Security Studies. "It shows that we're not that well-informed in terms of our intelligence capabilities," said Burger, describing the figures as "worrying." The generally gloomy crime picture was mitigated somewhat by the fall-off in some categories of contact crime: rape fell 5.2 per cent to 52,617 - still one of the highest levels in the world - and indecent assault fell by 5.5 per cent to 9,367. By the time South Africa hosts the 2010 football World Cup 70,000 more police officers will be in place than in 2000/2001. "That will help but it will not solve the problem," said Burger, calling on the government to focus more on the socio-economic causes of crime Recent figures showed 43 per cent of South Africans live on less than 3,000 rand (428 dollars) a year and the gap between rich and poor is widening. National police commissioner Jackie Selebi said Tuesday police would focus their resources on fighting crime in the three provinces that account for most crime - Gauteng (including Johannesburg and Pretoria), KwaZulu-Natal (including Durban) and Western Cape (including Cape Town).
