Provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe.
MEC for Transport and Community Safety, Violet Mathye.
The Thohoyandou area in the former Venda homeland is the most dangerous place in the province, maintaining its notorious status as the provincial crime capital.
This is according to the latest provincial crime statistics of the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year released by provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe in Polokwane on September 17.
Thohoyandou police station is among the top 30 stations in the country to record violent crimes, perched at fifth spot, according to national statistics.
The most prevalent crimes in the area relate to sexual offenses.
During the media briefing, Hadebe said the escalating crime wave in the Thohoyandou area is of grave concern.
Thohoyandou is followed by Seshego and Mankweng where criminals run amok with impunity.
Even though criminals are still terrorising community members, statistics indicate a declination from 651 during the 2023/24 financial year to 587 in the current financial year.
In recent years, Thohoyandou has been plagued by a wave of contact crimes, including sexual assaults, murder, attempted murder, burglaries, armed robberies, carjacking and gender-based violence.
The area has experienced a series of mob justice incidents recently when angry residents took the law and placed it in their hands, citing loss of confidence in the police and the justice system.
Hadebe said the scourge of gender-based violence works against the dream of building a safe and a socially cohesive province.
She said “As the law enforcement authorities, we will continue to work together with civil society organisations to foster a collaborative effort in dealing with the gender-based violence pandemic. Acknowledging the pivotal role of law enforcement in tackling these matters, we must recognise that pro-active policing has brought us closer to significant progress in crime detection. Our initiatives have yielded a notable 9.8% increase in crimes detected as a result of police interventions, with significant rises in illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, drug-related offenses, and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.”
MEC for Transport and Community Safety, Violet Mathye said the release of the crime statistics come at a time when the province is still reeling from shock following the brutal murders of Maria Makgato and Kudzai Ndlovu, who were brutally murdered and fed to pigs on a farm outside Polokwane.
She said “We are also taken aback with the recent spike of criminal activities in the areas around Masisi along the Zimbabwean borderline where criminals brazenly ambush residents in their homes and forcefully take their belongings.
These incidents did not feature in this report, but they are well-worth mentioning because they are still fresh in our minds.
Together with the provincial commissioner, we have crafted a series of intervention mechanisms to deal with incidents of cross-border crime in Masisi and we have made serious inroads on that front. We will continue with our endeavours to fight crime to ensure that the people of this province are safe.”