South Africa P.I.G.

Robbery stats reveal shocking truth

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGlT8E8DUdX0ruK1N6D7VpCKQT0z4f8kBmmp54P22QNB6cZ-NqwpeoalpsR7CdxeHKQg2RQeXHiP2MxkfA0y96zz0u83bAj4WbTKo6VJs_D_BpwWYMOj2Hxw6dkpKbsDYShFQVqzEpVVo/s1600-h/crime-home-invasion.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354956845358107250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGlT8E8DUdX0ruK1N6D7VpCKQT0z4f8kBmmp54P22QNB6cZ-NqwpeoalpsR7CdxeHKQg2RQeXHiP2MxkfA0y96zz0u83bAj4WbTKo6VJs_D_BpwWYMOj2Hxw6dkpKbsDYShFQVqzEpVVo/s400/crime-home-invasion.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 243px" /></a>CAPE TOWN – While the DA has taken Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to task for his failure to release more regular crime statistics, research has revealed that up to 30% of burglars either have done so or are willing to commit murder. “Covering up crime won‘t make it go away; no one asked you to protect us from the truth,” DA police spokesman Dianne Kohler-Barnard said in the National Assembly during a debate on the Safety and Security budget vote. She criticised Mthethwa for his decision to “renege” on his predecessor‘s (Charles Nqakula‘s) assertion that crime statistics would be released twice a year. “The minister (Mthethwa) in fact told me in a televised discussion that if he had his way we would only be informed of the status of crime once every second year. “Now we have to wait until September before he releases the statistics, which will by then be 18 months out of date. Hardly a reflection on the cold, hard reality of crime we are experiencing today.” The only recent crime statistics that are available have been extracted from research done on residential robberies and interviews with arrested/convicted robbers by Dr Rudolph Zinn, from Unisa‘s School of Criminal Justice. The research reveals: <ul><li>House robberies have increased by 13,5% in the past year. </li><li>Of the almost 15000 residential robberies committed last year, 50% took place in Gauteng. </li><li>The average age of a house robber is 19 to 26 years. </li><li>An average of 30% of all house robbers have committed murder or are willing to commit murder. </li><li>17% of house robbers are foreigners. </li><li>90% of arrested robbers had no matric or were unemployed. </li><li>The 10% who were employed gave up their jobs when confirming how much they could make from a robbery. </li><li>Most victims/targets are affluent people who openly display their wealth, i.e. expensive cars, jewellery, upmarket homes. </li><li>Eight out of 10 residential robberies are committed with the help of information from maids, gardeners and former employees. </li><li>Robbers will monitor the home for as long as two weeks. </li><li>Gangs research armed response firms‘ response times. </li><li>Most attacks occur between 7pm and midnight as people are relaxed, cooking or watching TV. </li><li>The biggest deterrent confirmed by robbers themselves are small dogs kept inside the home. </li><li>Alarm systems and armed reaction services are not a deterrent. </li><li>Electric fences, CCTV and detection beams do deter robbers. </li><li>Victims of house robberies are only seriously injured in 2% of all incidents. </li><li>35% of robbers robbed for basic needs (hunger, poverty), while 65% enjoyed the money and spent it on clothes, cars and houses. </li><li>The average robber commits 103 robberies over seven years before being caught. </li><li>97% of robbers are armed. </li><li>Women are more often tortured or hurt during robberies. </li><li>On average an armed robbery gang has four members. </li><li>The conviction rate for house robberies in South Africa is 7,67%; in the USA it is 53%.</li></ul>Source - <a class="OtherStoryHead" href="http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=441250" target="_parent">Minister wants to keep mum on crime – but robbery stats reveal shocking truth</a>Related:- <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3045&art_id=vn20080907084907368C109660">House robberies soar</a> <a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080907085604800C660880">Crime in SA a catch-22 situation</a> <a class="feedlink" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080630162558200C333337">SA crime stats 2007 - 2008</a> Url: <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20080717061647742C278268">http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20080717061647742C278268</a>

Robbery stats reveal shocking truth

CAPE TOWN – While the DA has taken Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to task for his failure to release more regular crime statistics, research...

2:34 AM

How cops fiddle crime statistics

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL5AlIoOIvDHZse5Mz-FwiA6INdlYedc4VI5LS_xH6amMyE-2727bj5SM62S4JSUUOvBhqRBony5h0ORWP0SsMO2B4b0pP1_Dq5h84iaUfLkUOxnwjMbeHiKXCulqBCvSFvDr6wXPjtsc/s1600-h/crime-SA07.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354902869583419922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL5AlIoOIvDHZse5Mz-FwiA6INdlYedc4VI5LS_xH6amMyE-2727bj5SM62S4JSUUOvBhqRBony5h0ORWP0SsMO2B4b0pP1_Dq5h84iaUfLkUOxnwjMbeHiKXCulqBCvSFvDr6wXPjtsc/s400/crime-SA07.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 248px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a>Police in South Africa’s three major provinces are implicated in a conspiracy to make it appear that they are winning the war on crime. Evidence of manipulating crime statistics — including destroying dockets and failing to register cases — has been exposed in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. At least five stations in the Western Cape, four in Gauteng and one in KwaZulu-Natal have been fingered in alleged fiddling and indications are that the fraud could be far more widespread. In the past few weeks, police stations have been accused of: <ul><li>Stockpiling, hiding and burning dockets; </li><li>Ditching dockets of crimes on the increase, including child rape; </li><li>Failing to register crimes that have a low chance of prosecution; and </li><li>Reducing serious crimes to lesser charges. </li></ul>Four senior officers in Cape Town have been implicated in fiddling crime statistics, while Western Cape Community Safety MEC Lennit Max — embroiled in a war of words over the issue with his commissioner Mzwandile Petros — has claimed that the fudging of crime numbers is “common”. The Sunday Times was also shown photocopies this week of about 200 unregistered dockets allegedly stashed in a KwaZulu-Natal police station. Mulaudzi Hangwani, the spokesman for minister of police Nathi Mthethwa, said the stations under investigation made up “zero” percent of the country’s 1500 police stations. The Independent Complaints Commission confirmed this week that six stations were under investigation. This excludes Gauteng, where researcher Lisa Vetten from the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre also claims there is fiddling. Vetten said Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) officers handling rape at more than four police stations in Gauteng had reported in a recent study that statistics manipulation was “definitely” happening. “It is making some police officers very uncomfortable, ” Vetten said. Pietermaritzburg’s Mountain Rise police station is under investigation by the Independent Complaints Directorate for allegedly stockpiling and destroying dockets, after it jumped from 40th position to the province’s top-performing station in a year. The 200 unregistered dockets seen by the Sunday Times are alleged to have been stockpiled in a room at this station since 2007. Meanwhile, Max said this week that his calls for an audit of all 147 Western Cape police stations were being ignored. He claims that rape cases involving children as young as five were not registered or investigated. Vetten said the decision in 2004 to reduce crimes like rape by 7% to 10% every year had most likely put pressure on police as it not in “the realm of possibility”. Policeman Craig Josiah from Mountain Rise station, who was suspended after blowing the whistle on the manipulation of figures, has had his pay reinstated and disciplinary charges put on hold pending finalisation of a court application to have his suspension overturned.

How cops fiddle crime statistics

Police in South Africa’s three major provinces are implicated in a conspiracy to make it appear that they are winning the war on crime. Evid...

2:05 AM

SA's most loved rugby supporter

Cellphone company’s ‘Elton and Jan’ commercial proves a massive score with rugby supporters <object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2aBBusT_bGg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2aBBusT_bGg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Forget Merlin and Malcolm, meet Elton and Jan. The stars of Vodacom’s Player 23 rugby advert have become so well known that it has changed their lives. Ironically, though, their nationwide celebrity kicked off pretty inauspiciously. Cape Town comedian Malcolm Ferreira, who plays Jan, thought it was a prank when an advertising agency asked him to send a picture of himself “topless” to get a role in a Vodacom advert. He eventually sent the picture and a few weeks later landed the role of South Africa’s most loved rugby supporter. Ferreira said this week the agency approached him after seeing his rip-off music video — as rapper Koolerbox, the Afrikaner version of US rapper Eminem — on YouTube. Actor Merlin Balie, on the other hand, was just following his agent’s orders when he auditioned for the part of Elton in May. Balie said he had been told the first Vodacom ad had been popular, but had had no idea how successful it would be when he auditioned. “For the audition, I had to act out three scenes ... I didn’t realise that the ad would be this big,” he said. But from inauspicious beginnings have come big things. Balie and Ferreira agree that their popularity has reached the point where they can’t walk down the street without being stopped by rugby-mad fans who refer to them by their character names. Ferreira, who has been a stand-up comic for about eight years, has had some bizarre run-ins with rugby fans. “After the Super 14 game between the Vodacom Bulls and the Stormers at Loftus Versfeld (in March), one supporter invited me to his braai and told me that if I went, then I could go out on a date with his sister,” Ferreira said. He has also been asked to sign a woman’s breasts — “that was an experience I think will take me time to forget” — and a man’s chest. “Signing his man boob was hysterical. That is when I realised that supporters really love Jan,” said Ferreira. Balie has not experienced the weird side of his fame. He is still enjoying being asked to pose for photographs and give autographs. “There was a time when people could only recognise me when I was wearing my Springbok jersey, but now they spot me regardless of what I’m wearing,” he said. Balie also admitted that he liked it when fans called him Elton. “There is one supporter who stopped me and said, ‘Hey, Elton, vat ’n foto met my laaitie,’ and that is when I realised that people are really starting to notice me.” Both Ferreira and Balie said filming the ads had been interesting. The first one — where he appears without Balie — literally made a big impression, Ferreira quipped. “In the scene I high fived all the players and left Bakkies (Botha) hanging. He then decided to give me a pat on my stomach. My stomach only stopped wobbling after about four days. His handprint lasted for about a week. Those rugby players are strong.” Balie — a veteran of 15 ads — said he realised how big the Vodacom ad was going to be when he saw the screen shots. “I didn’t think it was funny while we were shooting the scenes, but it was when the director called me to look at the screen shots that I laughed and realised how good it was.” Ferreira said the hype has boosted his profile and he has been getting more calls to do stand-up comedy. Balie, who played bad guy Werner in soapie 7de Laan in 2005, believes the ad will lead to more TV work for him. And in a case of life imitating art, Elton and Jan have struck up a real-life friendship. Balie said the two call each other to try to meet up at rugby games. “I love rugby, and I’m from Cape Town. So the Stormers are my team,” said Balie.

SA's most loved rugby supporter

Cellphone company’s ‘Elton and Jan’ commercial proves a massive score with rugby supporters Forget Merlin and Malcolm, meet Elton and Jan. T...

1:46 AM

South Africa P.I.G.

Robbery stats reveal shocking truth

How cops fiddle crime statistics

SA's most loved rugby supporter

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