Presenting the statistics, Cele said: “never again can we come here to give such statistics. It cannot be that South Africans are put under such fear, such stress and such murder”. He said murders of women and children had also increased.
Cele also said rape was up 0.5 per cent, with 40,035 recorded instances compared to 39,828 in 2017. South Africa is known internationally for its violent crime, but annual statistics are often disputed, especially rape figures.
19,016 murders were recorded between April 2016 to March 2017.