Violent crime report to be made public

[Newsroom]

Pretoria – South Africans will soon get a chance to comment on the Report on the Study on the Violent Nature of Crime in South Africa. Cabinet approved the report today, which it commissioned in 2007.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said this paved the way for public comment in the coming weeks.

He welcomed Cabinet’s approval of the report, which seeks to answer the fundamental question of why crime in South Africa tends to be violent in nature.

The minister said concerns from certain sections of society about why the report had not yet been made public were purely based on the fact that they first needed to study its findings and recommendations carefully.

“The next step was to ensure we share it within the cluster [Justice, Crime Prevention and Security], then to Cabinet.

“This is our preferred approach when dealing with any proposal, research or input from various stakeholders so that we do not narrow our findings to one specific school-of-thought,” said Mthethwa.

He added that it never was the ministry’s intention to hide the report.

“South Africans will have an opportunity to study each letter, comma, numerical figure and page of this report. As we have been publicly and consistently saying, we had neither reason nor intention to hide this report anyway.”

Following today’s Cabinet approval for tabling the study in Parliament, the ministry will now spearhead a consultative process with all partners in the fight against crime.

On 9 November, the police ministry will engage with the Portfolio Committee on Police to interrogate the report’s findings.

“The ministry remains optimistic that post this engagement with the committee, the study will be released for public comment,” said the minister.

He added that the study would spark government to relook some of the current legislative and operational frameworks, which may assist in reducing violent crime. - BuaNews