1 000 crimes committed at Cup venues
2010-07-15 15:45
Just under 1 000 crimes were reported in and around the country’s
stadiums on match days during the World Cup, Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa
said today.
The majority of these were thefts and muggings, Mthethwa
said.
A total of 704 incidents took place outside the stadiums while 290
occurred inside.
Mthethwa said: “We have specifically looked at crime levels during
the tournament within a 1.5km radius of certain venues.”
Some 1 788 crimes were reported in and around fanparks, which saw
about 1.2 million fans in attendance on match days.
The minister said: “We must agree that these figures are very
heartening and reflect exceptionally well on the security forces and the people
of South Africa.”
He cautioned that the figures were incidents reported to police and
not all of them would necessarily have resulted in a case docket being
opened.
Of the 1 002 dockets opened, 558 cases were finalised with the
remainder still being investigated.
Mthethwa said police arrested 447 people, 181 of whom were foreign
nationals and 266 were South Africans.
Some of those foreign nationals had already been sentenced for up
to 15 years.
National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele said: “If they’ve
only been here for 25 days, God help them,” emphasising that visible policing
would continue across the country.
A total of 44 000 police were deployed around the country during
the World Cup.
With the World Cup over, police have shifted their focus back to
safeguarding South African citizens against crime.
Mthethwa said they were determined to take the best practices and
lessons learned forward to safeguard citizens and visitors in the future: “The
phenomenon of crime will always be attacked head-on. The stance taken in
fighting crime is that we will fight smartly.”
He said equipment acquired for the World Cup would benefit ongoing
policing.
Mthethwa said it was important that communities and visitors had
repeatedly indicated that they felt safe during the tournament as they moved
around the country at all hours.
Cele said they had no intention of withdrawing police officers
deployed in the host cities.
“We intend to keep the numbers of police there.” He said the number
of police officers was expected to increase by 200 000 in the 2011/12 period.
- SAPA