Dr Kenneth Kaunda district in the North West province has been identified as the provincial hotspot for illegal mining, sexual offences and assault cases.
This is according to North West MEC for community safety and transport management, Wessels Morweng during the third quarter (October to December) crime stats on Wednesday at the Stilfontein police station.
“The district has both operational and non-operational gold mines which contributes to the problem of illegal mining and associated crimes,” he said.
The district headquartered in Klerksdorp serves the municipalities of Matlosana, JB Marks and Maquassi Hills and includes Potchefstroom, Ventersdorp and Orkney among major towns,
The briefing came after the court appearance of four police officers accused of helping James “Tiger” Tshoaeli escape from custody in Stilfontein, North West.
The officers are WO Jack Motlhabya, 37, WO Menzi Shabalala, 38, Sgt Ntutuko Dladla, 40, and Sgt Samkelo Mbotho, 38. They were arrested in January and are out on bail.
Their matter was postponed to May 29 for further investigation and police say their investigations were at an advanced stage.
“Just as we were heaving a collective sigh of relief on the back of the Stilfontein operation success, another similar challenge reared its head elsewhere in the province. The Vala Umgodi operation had recently arraigned 22 illegal mining suspects in the Bojanala district.
“Of particular interest is that the nationalities of the arrested are no longer just from Africa but from Asia as well. Of those arrested previously, nationalities varied from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. Now added to those nationalities we have some from Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Pakistan,” Morweng said.
He added the Dr Kenneth Kaunda district also had a challenge of gangs, which were often involved in crimes such as rape, robberies, murder, assaults and drugs especially in the City of Matlosana municipality.
Dr Kenneth Kaunda district is also the hotspot for rape cases in the province.
Morweng said between October and December, the province had 2.5% decrease on the contact crimes, 10.5% decrease on property-related crimes and a 2.2% on other serious crimes category.
And although there was a general decrease in crime, contact related crimes increased by 2.3% while malicious damage to property contributed most cases with 1 969 cases. This was 48 more cases compared to the previous year, which is a 2.5% increase.
Ikageng township in Potchefstroom continuously reported assault cases and appears in the national top 30 Stations for the same crime.
While Bojanala continued to lead particularly with serious and violent crimes, with its major centre Rustenburg appearing in the top 12 stations in the country.
Boitekong in Rustenburg, Mmabatho in Mahikeng and Kanana in Orkney had reported more criminal cases. There had been multiple murder cases resulting in 24 deaths during the same period.
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