South Africa’s police minister has said there has been a significant surge in the number of murders and other violent crimes.
Bheki Cele said the first three months of this year were violent, brutal and unsafe for many South Africans.
He said more than 6,000 people were killed – an increase of about 20% on the same period last year.
Kidnappings showed the sharpest increase – more than doubling to over 3,000.
There were also 10,000 more rapes between January and March.
Mr Cele described the figures as dismal and vowed to weed out corrupt officers and better equip the police.
He said better relations between communities and the police were needed to fight crime.
