Pretoria - South Africa has seen an overall decrease in serious crime from approximately 3 800 to approximately 3 600 per 100 000 of the population between 2010 and 2011.
This includes a decrease in murder, attempted murder, car-jackings and house robberies.
This is according to the Mid Term Review report released by Minister in the Presidency responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane, on Friday.
The report provides progress the government has made in its commitments. November 2011 marked the mid-point of the 2009-2014 electoral term of the current administration and in line with that, the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation carried out a Mid Term Review of government.
The review focuses on government's progress against the delivery agreements for the 12 outcomes. The outcomes are focused on national priorities such as education, health, crime and corruption, jobs and rural development.
"However, we saw a marginal increase in business robberies. We have also witnessed an improvement in perceptions of the management of crime among citizens. The detection rates for contact and trio crimes have increased, with case backlogs decreasing," Chabane said.
He added that government was committed to ensuring that people were safe and feel safe in South Africa and to reducing the overall levels of serious crime, in particular contact and trio crimes which are assault, murder and rape.
With regards to combating corruption, Chabane said between 2009 and 2011, over 1500 people working in the criminal justice system were investigated, 192 officials were criminally charged, 86 were convicted and a further 296 officials were departmentally charged.
"Looking more broadly than the criminal justice system, 56 suspects with illegally obtained assets of more than R5 million have been investigated, 26 of whom have appeared in court. Assets worth R580 million of 19 individuals have been restrained.
"We have also witnessed 255 other corruption related convictions between April 2011 and December 2011. The President has signed 23 Presidential Proclamations since 2009 for the Special Investigation Unit to investigate corruption cases," said the minister.
