Crime in SA | Criminals attack targets every 50 seconds

JOHANNESBURG - There's been a small drop in assault, robbery, and violence overall.

But the hard truth is that someone gets attacked by criminals every 50 seconds.

From the crime statistics released by Police Minister Bheki Cele about four months ago, there was also a drop in the murder rate across the country.

READ: Crime stats | CT communities living in fear despite drop in murder rate

But those statistics did not pacify residents living in crime infested areas like Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

Anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee says even though the numbers look better, what's happening in reality is quite different.

"What happens is the usual trends that we have seen in South Africa over the past few years is that the crime figures are going up and up.

"If you look at the contact crimes specifically, those figures are very, very worrying although they have come slightly down," he said.

"In the run-up to the festive season, we usually find that crimes are going up."