KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli, in his role as the Executive Authority for the Department of Community Safety and Liaison, convened a meeting with community stakeholders on Saturday to address the rising crime rates in KwaZulu-Natal, especially those affecting women and youth.

This comes in the wake of reports detailing incidents of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide that occurred between October and December 2024, coinciding with the annual 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women and Children.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Phoenix, Inanda, Ntuzuma, KwaMashu, and uMlazi including SAPS, station commanders of affected stations or their CPF coordinators, members from safer cities, spiritual crime prevention, departmental senior management, and eThekwini district departmental officials, among others.

The meeting was attended by community safety representatives from Phoenix, Inanda, Ntuzuma, KwaMashu, and uMlazi to combat escalating crime in the province. Picture: Supplied

The premier noted an escalation of GBV incidents in UGU and eThekwini districts during January 2025.

As a result, he directed the Department of Community Safety and Liaison to prioritise these incidents.

“Crime in general has also escalated, with more than 10 murders that were reported at Inanda, Ntuzuma, and Cato Manor policing precincts within the space of five days in January 2025 alone.”

He said in the first quarter of 2024/25, eThekwini District led all 10 districts in the number of GBV-related crimes, with 2 003 cases of murder, attempted murder, rape, sexual assault, assault GBH, and common assault.

“In the second quarter, the district was also leading with 1 744 cases. Consistently, the top 30 contributing stations were Inanda, Umlazi, Chatsworth, Verulam, Ntuzuma, Phoenix, KwaMashu, Bhekithemba, Cato Manor, KwaMakhutha, Durban Central, and Pinetown.”

Ntuli said a new crime trend has also been noted that involves the hacking, shooting, and setting of suspected criminals on fire.

“This is an unfortunate development which is indicative of the resurgence of mob justice culture. This, if not addressed, will result in lawlessness and more senseless killings.”

Interventions in inner-city, township, informal settlement, suburb, and rural areas do not have to start by addressing the major crime first, he said.

“When transgressions of by-laws are condoned, they breed an environment of crime and a culture of impunity. When people are not punished for wrongdoing, they believe that crime pays and that they will never be caught.”

The premier emphasised the need for a sustainable programme to address crime in the province and expressed his desire for the meeting to focus on this. He stated that successfully addressing crime in KZN would necessitate a multi-pronged intervention involving all government departments.

“The drivers of all the above crime trends are unemployment, poverty, poor environmental design, dependency on substance, mushrooming taverns, and illegal shebeens – hence the need to strengthen our partnership.”

He cautioned that any action taken to address crime must be carried out in accordance with the country’s laws.

“This applies to officers and officials, but also to communities and all of us as we are not allowed to take the law into our own hands, just because we are fed up with crime.”

karen.singh@inl.co.za