Cape Town — Sexual offences discovered as a result of police action have increased by 20.5% over the past year, according to the 2019/20 statistics released by the South African Police Service.

The statistics, released by Police Minister Bheki Cele, reveals that are increases in other offences, which include a 13.7% increase in driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a 13.3% increase in hijacking, and a 3.3% increase in robbery at non-residential premises.

Drug-related crime dropped by 26.7% (from 232,657 in 2019 to 170,510 in 2020 over the past financial year). A decrease was observed in several other offences, including cash-in-transit robberies, which declined by a rate of 10.4%. Rates of attempted murder declined by 1.8%, while the number of burglaries at residential premises dropped by 6.7%.

Long-term statistics were also revealed. Over the past ten years, 759,904 incidents of drunk driving were recorded while the overall murder rate has increased by 1.4%. Similarly, sexual offences have trended higher over the decade, increasing by 1.7%.

The full crime stats presentation for 2019/20 can be found here.