Pretoria - Gauteng is struggling to shirk its reputation as the crime capital of the country.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa released the annual crime statistics on Thursday which revealed the province accounts for 50 percent of the crime in the country.
This is despite decreases in two of the "trio crimes" - robberies at residential premises and car-jackings. A 2.2% increase in robberies at non-residential premises, the third trio crime, was recorded.
A total of 8051 cases of robbery at residential premises were opened in Gauteng between April 2009 and March 2010, down 1.7%. Sandton police station recorded the highest incidence of residential robbery in the country, followed by Honeydew, Midrand and Wierdabrug.
A total of 7 444 cases, a 2.8 percent drop from the previous year, of hijacking were reported in the same period. Booysens police station reported the highest incidence of car-jacking in the country.
Second on the list is KwaZulu-Natal while the Northern Cape recorded the lowest crime incidents of all the nine provinces.
Police Commissioner Bheki Cele said police were doing everything possible to fight crime in the Gauteng province and the country in general.
Among their strategies, he said, would be a recruitment drive for new police officials in addition to the training development of police which will equip officials with new skills in fighting crime.
He added that he wanted communities to assist in the fight against crime to bring down the levels of crime, Cele said.
The province last week introduced a new Police Commissioner Mzwandile Petros who took over from Perumal Naidoo.
Cele said the new commissioner's first step would be to assess the province's police stations and crime patterns, and then formulate a "war room" plan against crime.
