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Police Minister Bheki Cele says calls by South Africans for police to decisively deal with crime are "not falling on deaf ears".

Violent crime increased year on year between October and December 2022, the Portfolio Committee on Police heard on Friday morning, when the police presented the crime statistics for the third quarter of the current financial year.

Overall, violent crime increased by 11.6% compared to the same period the previous year. This included increases in each of the categories making up violent crime.

There were 7 555 murders, an increase of 696 or 10.1%.

Sexual offences increased by 1 357 to 15 545, an increase of 9.6%. There were 7 016 attempted murders, an increase of 1 357 or 24.3% – the highest percentage increase in all categories.

On Friday, Cele released the crime statistics for the third quarter of the current financial year.

"The calls by South Africans on the police to decisively deal with crime are loud, and they are clear. I stand here before you this afternoon, supported by the full contingent of the SAPS management, to say these calls by South Africans are not falling on deaf ears," he told a media briefing on Friday.

Almost half of those murdered were killed with a firearm, while a large proportion were killed with other weapons such as knives, sharp and blunt instruments, and bricks.

"It is clear, a broader conversation must be had about what is at the heart of violent crime in the country," Cele said.

"With the analysis of the current and previous statistics, it is quite evident that firearms are only part of a bigger problem. At the core of the matter is human behaviour. We have to be honest as South Africans about the causes of violence and address them."

Cele said the high rates of unemployment and poverty levels, as well as the mushrooming of informal settlements with little to no services, and other socio-economic ills, were breeding criminality.

"The violence that is stalking communities is translated to an increased number of assaults, which escalate to attempted murders and, in some cases, murder. The reality is assaults are feeders of domestic violence and other violent crimes," he said.

He added that police would continue to intensify intelligence-led operations to "take down individuals or organised criminals hell-bent on terrorising communities".

"Police are also cleaning house and ridding the service of officers who choose to partner with rogue criminal elements."

In the current financial year, 46 police officers had been dismissed for various transgressions, Cele said.

"With that said, we know and understand that police alone will not be able to drive out criminality on our streets, in our alleyways, in our homes, schools and places of leisure and worship. We call on communities to take charge and be allies in safety.

Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm increased by 4 069 or 8.7% to 52 741, while common assault increased by 5 660 or 12% to 52 741.

There were 12 752 common robberies, an increase of 2 228 or 21.2%, and 32 829 robberies with aggravated circumstances, an increase of 3 686 or 10.8%.

These crimes, with the exception of robberies with aggravated circumstances, increased compared to the previous quarter (July to September 2022).

There were 7 004 murders during this quarter, 13 283 sexual crimes, 6 155 attempted murders, 41 251 assaults with intent to do grievous bodily harm, 44 389 common assaults, 12 024 common robberies, and 38 412 robberies with aggravated circumstances.

In total, 1 101 women were murdered between October and December 2022, an increase of 199 compared to the same quarter in the previous year and 112 more than the previous quarter.

There were 1 636 attempted murders of women, 396 more than in the same quarter of the previous year and 359 more than in the previous quarter.

There were 17 271 assaults on women, 1 579 more than in the same quarter of the previous year and 3 570 more than in the previous quarter.

Between October and December,...

February may bring a large hike in the petrol price, the latest information from the Central Energy Fund shows.

With two weeks to go before the prices are fixed, the fund's data shows that 95 unleaded petrol could be increased by more than R1.20 a litre in February, while diesel may be hiked by 38c.

The fuel prices are usually adjusted on the first Wednesday of a month and primarily determined by the price of oil and the rand-dollar exchange rate.

While Brent crude oil is roughly the same level as a month ago - currently around $85 a barrel - oil prices have been volatile over the past month. Prices received support from expectations that the end of Chinese lockdowns will boost demand and Russia's announcement that it will cut output, but uncertainty about a global recession weighed on sentiment.

The rand has taken a big hit over recent weeks, falling from around R17/$ to trading at R18 in recent days. Expectations that the US may still hike interest rates by a large margin and concern about the impact of load shedding fuelled a rand sell-off.

Gauteng petrol rose to R21.68 a litre at the start of February, from R20.14 a year ago. Petrol peaked at R26.74 in July last year. Gauteng diesel climbed to around R21.32 a litre, from R18.04 in February 2022. Diesel was close to R25.50 in November last year.

Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana may adjust the general fuel levy, and the Road Accident Fund levy in his Budget Speech in Parliament next week, which could take effect in April.

Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele reassured citizens that the South African Police Service (Saps) is being strengthened to prevent crime and is also intensifying operations to detect and remove illegal firearms and ammunition from the hands of criminals.

Gungubele briefed the media on Thursday on Cabinet outcomes, where he said crime undermined the socio-economic environment in the country, making it difficult for citizens to work.

He said government had accepted that it was failing on crime, however, there were improvements recently where the rates of arrests have increased.

He said heinous and cold-blooded attacks, which were being investigated by law-enforcement authorities, highlighted the prevalence of gun violence and its impact on communities.

He said that the Saps would place more police on the streets and set up specialised teams that would focus on specific types of crime.

Data-driven methods would be used sophisticatedly to identify and target crime hotspots.

In the past 12 months police permanently removed 65 519 firearms from circulation, Gungubele revealed.

Cabinet expressed condolences to the families and friends of those killed in recent mass shootings in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape and more specifically, to the family and friends of hip-hop artist Kiernan Forbes, popularly known as AKA, and celebrity chef Tebello Motsoane, who were recently gunned down in Durban.

Forbes’s memorial service will take place on Friday at the Sandton Convention Centre and he will be laid to rest on February 18.

Cabinet also expressed its sympathies to the family and friends of anti-crime activist Ayob Mungalee, who was recently shot dead in Eldorado Park, in Johannesburg.

Mungalee was the national director of the People Seeking Justice Action Group, a movement which mobilised community members to take a stand against gangsterism and drug dealing.

Meanwhile, Gungubele acknowledged that school safety in the country was also a top priority for government and reports of violence between learners and educators were a serious cause for concern.

“While the Department of Basic Education has put mechanisms in place to combat this scourge, it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to collaborate with school authorities and learners to ensure that schools remain safe places for our learners to develop and become responsible citizens. The safety of our educators at schools is also of paramount importance,” he said.

BILATERAL RELATIONS

Next week President Cyril Ramaphosa will host Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni with the aim of strengthening political, economic and cultural relations between South Africa and Uganda.

Gungubele said South Africa and Uganda enjoyed longstanding historical relations dating back to the struggle against apartheid.

Uganda hosted and trained South African anti-apartheid activists and freedom fighters in the late 1980s. Political and economic relations between South Africa and Uganda have been improving since 1994.

The South Africa-Uganda Joint Commission seeks to strengthen and deepen bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries, consolidate political, economic and social cooperation, and oversee the implementation of the signed agreements and memoranda of understanding.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday defended his decision to appoint a minister to try to end crippling power cuts, rejecting criticism the role would cause confusion in government.

State utility Eskom is implementing the worst power outages on record, constraining the country's economic growth prospects. That prompted Ramaphosa to declare a "state of disaster" and say he would appoint a new Minister of Electricity last week.

Some lawmakers said the appointment would add a layer of bureaucracy as Eskom is overseen by the public enterprises minister while the energy minister is responsible for procuring additional power generation capacity.

Ramaphosa told parliament some people had suggested the appointment will "result in turf wars amongst the ministers who deal with energy and Eskom".

"This is not the case," he said, responding to a debate by lawmakers on his State of the Nation Address.

"(The power crisis) requires the undivided attention of a political principal who does not need to split their time and energies among different important responsibilities," he added.

South Africa has previously invoked disaster management law to address the Covid-19 pandemic and flooding in its KwaZulu-Natal province.

Ramaphosa said declaring a "state of disaster" would remove unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles to urgently adding power capacity to the grid.

Creaking coal-fired power stations, corruption in coal supply contracts, criminal sabotage and failure to relax regulation to enable private providers to swiftly bring renewable energy online have left South Africa with a deep power deficit.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema began his speech at the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) debate on Tuesday by disputing claims that he had threatened and intimidated President Cyril Ramaphosa at SoNA on Thursday.

EFF members stormed towards the president during SoNA and were forcibly removed by the police and officers from the Parliamentary Protection Services.

"I have known the president of the ANC [African National Congress] longer than many of you, and he has known me since I was very young. Under no circumstances will he ever be threatened by me, or can he feel that his life is under threat because Julius is next to him," Malema said on Tuesday.

According to Malema, the following day at the Presidential Golf Challenge, the president said that he had not felt threatened by him and that he was not scared when he was with him in Parliament.

"So, what are you saying, the people who use your own stomachs to think?" asked Malema of those who insinuated that he had threatened Ramaphosa.

"There is no need for you to behave like you can protect him against the people who sit next to him in the chamber, and he does so without even having bodyguards, without being intimidated."

The EFF leader also questioned the presence of the police at SoNA.

"So, what were the police doing here? They were here because the [National Assembly] Speaker [Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula] had lost total control of this Parliament, and that's why she must step down," he said.

Later in the debate, ANC member of Parliament Xola Nqola chastised the EFF for its behaviour, calling it "anarchy".

"We cannot use taxpayers' money to fly to Cape Town to attend SoNA, get in the House and behave like gang leaders of amaphara (gangsters).

The conduct of some members was clearly not aimed at holding the president to account but deliberately aimed at subverting our democracy, which we now understand is meant to appease the insatiable lust for power and relevance by some delusional individuals," he said.

News24 previously reported that after EFF MPs were removed from the Chamber, Malema told journalists that the behaviour of members of his party had been "peaceful".

He claimed that EFF MPs only wanted to stand on stage silently with placards. "The president would have proceeded to address the nation in the presence of protests," Malema said at the time.

Annual consumer inflation cooled to 6.9% in January, from 7.2% in December. This is the third consecutive month of a decline. But food inflation hit the highest rate since 2009.

The consumer price index (CPI) declined by 0.1% between December and January, Statistics SA reported.

Cheaper fuel helped to tame some prices, with petrol prices back to levels last seen in March 2022.

Still, food prices continued to race ahead. Food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation hit 13.4% in January - the highest level since April 2009.

Vegetables saw the biggest hike, with prices up more than 5% between December and January.

Bread and cereal prices were 21.8% higher than a year before. In a single month (from December to January), the prices of pizzas and pies rose by 3.6%, while maize (+3.1%) and brown bread (+1.3%) also saw large hikes.

Meat prices increased to 11.2% in January from the year before – from 9.7% in December.

Statistics SA reports that individually quick frozen chicken portions, which have the biggest weighting in the meat basket, rose by 2.7% in January from the previous month. Bacon prices were 19.4% more expensive than the year before, while fish prices rose 13% - the highest annual price increase since May 2009.

Inflation reached a 13-year high in July last year, hitting 7.8%. To cool inflation, the Reserve Bank has aggressively hiked interest rates. The monetary policy committee is meeting at the end of March to decide whether another hike is required.

With a week to go before Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tables his budget in Parliament, two global credit ratings agencies have warned of SA's deteriorating risk profile due to the impact of prolonged electricity cuts on the economy.

On Wednesday, Fitch ratings said that while it had anticipated the power cuts would continue into 2023, "the further deterioration of electricity supply goes beyond our base case and presents downside risks to our forecast that economic growth will average 1.1% in 2023".

However, Fitch has not yet revised its growth projections due to higher-than-expected growth in the third quarter of 2022, which it believes "should limit the size of downward revisions to our 2023 growth forecast".

Fitch also has not revisited SA's credit rating of BB- with a stable outlook (three notches below investment grade) saying there is still headroom to absorb a temporary impact on economic metrics from load shedding. A failure to address loadshedding in the medium term or a further deterioration in the growth trajectory would be credit negative for SA.

The agency was cautiously optimistic over the measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the State of the Nation Address, stating:

The national state of disaster, and the appointment of a minister of electricity with responsibility for managing the crisis, could strengthen the government’s capacity to coordinate a response and accelerate practical measures to address power shortages, as it limits regulatory requirements. However, the generally poor track record on execution and Eskom’s governance problems, highlighted by the resignation of Eskom’s chief executive in December, suggests further delays are possible.

The Fitch statement follows one released by Moody's Investor Service last Friday headlined, "SA's longest stretch of power cuts is credit negative".

"We expect the blackouts' effect on businesses, consumer sentiment and investment will weaken the country's already subdued economic growth prospects and threaten social and political stability. Given South Africa's social inequities and high unemployment rates, social and political instability are likely to intensify, especially given the electricity regulator's January decision to grant an increase in electricity prices of more than 18%, effective 1 April," said Moody's.

Both agencies noted the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) downward revision to its 2023 growth forecast from 1.1% to 0.3% and the central bank's expectation power cuts will remove two percentage points from growth over the next three years.

Fitch forecasts that the fiscal deficit will stand at 5.1% at the end of the 2022/23 financial year, a widening compared to the National Treasury forecast of 4.9%. Moody's said it did not expect a major widening of the deficit as it expected that government would reduce spending commensurately. Moody's rates SA as Ba2 with a stable outlook, which is two notches into sub-investment grade.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has strongly condemned the docking of a Russian battleship in the city's harbour.

Replying to a tweet on the Russian government page, Hill-Lewis did not mince his words about South Africa hosting the ship.

"We are not hosting this warship, nor is it welcome in the Mother City. Cape Town will not be complicit in Russia's evil war," he said.

Hill-Lewis said that President Cyril Ramaphosa "must answer for his complicity".

Speaking to News24 on Tuesday, Hill-Lewis reiterated that the Russian warship was not welcome.

"We do not want to host it in the Mother City. Similarly, Russian soldiers who are taking part in Vladimir Putin's illegal war against Ukraine are not welcomed, and we do not want to host them in the Mother City."

Hill-Lewis added that Cape Town would not be complicit in the war against Ukraine.

"Even if the South African government is complicit at a national level and all freedom-loving people around the world should rightly be outraged at the South African government's indefensible position and immoral position in this conflict," he said.

And the controversy deepens as the government prepares to host the People's Liberation Army Navy from China and the Russian Federal Navy during a multilateral maritime exercise scheduled to take place from 17 to 27 February.

The countries are expected to participate in the Exercise Mosi II, which will see grand demonstrations of naval capabilities.

On Monday, the Russian government's Twitter page posted a picture of the "Admiral Gorshkov" battleship's arrival in Cape Town.

The massive vessel could be seen with a backdrop of Table Mountain.

The tweet read: "The battleship arrived in the Mother City on its way to Durban where it will take part in joint [SA, Chinese and Russian] naval drills scheduled for February 17-27."

No abandoning of neutral stance

Last month, the Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans said South Africa would not abandon its neutral stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Contrary to the assertions by our critics, South Africa is not abandoning its neutral position on the Russian-Ukraine conflict," it said in a statement.

It added that it would "remain firm in our view that multilateralism and dialogue are keys to unlock sustainable international peace".

Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, sparking a protracted war and sanctions by the west. While Russian forces have faced stiff resistance from Ukraine, suffering significant losses, they have annexed four regions of the country.

In October 2022, South Africa abstained from a United Nations vote on Russia's annexation of the regions. Previously, it also abstained from a vote on whether to suspend Russia from the UN's Human Rights Council.

This will be the second of such exercise involving the three naval forces. The first one was held in November 2019 in Cape Town.

This year's exercise will see more than 350 SA National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel from various arms of services and divisions participating alongside their Russian and Chinese counterparts.

Defence and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise said she was confident the exercise would "benefit all three participating nations".

South African Tourism CFO Johan van der Walt has been issued with a letter instructing him to justify why he should not be suspended, the board said on Tuesday.

"He has been given a letter to give reasons why he should not be suspended and he has not responded to that letter," SA Tourism board chairperson Thozamile Botha said.

This comes after Van der Walt was linked to an agency identified in the controversial Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship proposal that made headlines this week.

According to Botha, the board was not aware of the conflict of interest involving Van der Walt.

SA Tourism proposed a three-year deal with the English Premier League side, worth £42.5-million (about R900-million), starting at the beginning of the 2023/24 season and ending at the end of the 2026/27 season.

In exchange for the whopping investment, the State-owned entity would receive kit branding, interview backdrop branding, match-day advertising, partnership announcements, training camps in South Africa, and free access to tickets and stadium hospitality.

The Daily Maverick first reported that Van der Walt was a director of several companies linked to the WWP Group.

This despite SA Tourism's acting CEO Themba Khumalo stating at a media briefing that there would be no involvement of an agent or a middleman.

Further details of the deal emerged and revealed that a company called WWP Group would be paid £1.5-million (around R31-million) to ensure that "everything is 100% in place by 1 July 2023 when the season kicks off".

The Western Cape High Court has reserved judgment in an application on whether a secret ballot vote should have been held in a sitting considering the Section 89 report on President Cyril Ramaphosa's Phala Phala scandal.

On Tuesday, the second day of arguments, the African National Congress (ANC) presented its case to a full Bench of the court.

The African Transformation Movement (ATM) approached the court in December to overturn the National Assembly's decision not to continue with impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala saga. The ATM is asking the court to set aside National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's decision.

It is also asking the court to set aside the National Assembly's proceedings of 13 December, and for a declaratory order that such a vote must be by secret ballot.

Arguing on behalf of the ANC, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said the ATM had two weeks to lodge the case after the Speaker made her decision on the voting procedure.

"To do so after the event is moot. It can't be reconstructed. If the opposition had won the vote, they would not be in court today," he said.

Ngcukatoibi also submitted that there was no hard evidence of threats before the court.

"This is purely a speculative case," he said.

Furthermore, Ngcukaitobi argued that all opposition parties in the multiparty forum voted in the same way.

"It was only in the ANC where there were differing views."

During the sitting, five ANC MPs broke ranks in the open, roll-call vote, although Tandi Mahambehlala, who had voted in support of the motion, later indicated that she intended to toe the party line - but by then, it was too late.

Advocate Anton Katz, for the ATM, said it was "absurd" to suggest previous cases on a secret ballot for a motion of no confidence were moot because of the time that had elapsed.

Days after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid charges against Ramaphosa, Zungula lodged a motion in terms of Section 89 of the Constitution for Ramaphosa's removal.

Mapisa-Nqakula didn't accept the initial motion, but a subsequent one was accepted.

This led to the establishment of an independent panel, chaired by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, which found that Ramaphosa had a prima facie case to answer to.

This led to the 13 December sitting, where the vast majority of ANC MPs voted against the motion to establish an inquiry into Phala Phala.

A judgment is expected in the coming weeks.