Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele said the impact of load shedding on incidents of crime still required a thorough analysis and the application of carefully constructed research.
Responding to parliamentary questions form ANC MP Siphokuhle Patrein, Cele said SAPS had not conducted nor commissioned any specific study on the impact of load shedding on crime, safety and security concerns.
“However, during load shedding, the recording of crime is not affected since police stations use specific registers in the community service centres to record crime manually when required.
“These registers include the SAPS 297 (backup complaints) and SAPS 441(backup for crime administration system) to record and register the number of complaints received and the crime that is reported to the SAPS.”
Cele also said SAPS had not conducted any study on docket analysis to establish the impact of load shedding on crime in the country because load shedding varied from one province and policing precinct.
“Furthermore, geographical areas in which load shedding is applied are not necessarily aligned to specific policing precinct, but to localities that are predetermined by either Eskom or by specific municipalities.”
He added that load shedding was not applied uniformly across all provinces and police precincts as load shedding schedules changed at very short notice.
“Load shedding is not a variable, that is always taken into consideration when crime is recorded.
“Some police officers will note that crime has happened during load shedding while others will not record this fact.”
Cele also said the SAPS CAS did not make provision for the recording of the fact that crime may have taken place during load shedding.
“The determination of the impact load shedding has on the reported incidence of crime will require a thorough analysis of all the above mentioned variables and the application of a carefully constructed research and sampling methodology,” he said.
Cape Times