Sandton City terror attack

SANDTON, SOUTH AFRICA – FEBRUARY 17: A view of Sandton City Mall on February 17, 2022 in Sandton, South Africa. It is reported that City of Johannesburg disconnected the electricity supply on Wednesday at the shopping centre over R158m municipal services debt – Photo by Gallo Images/OJ KolotI)

Sandton, Gauteng’s ‘rich district’, is a national crime hot-spot – for THIS offence

It’s not a good look for Sandton: The upmarket district has ended up coming top of a crime stats list, published by SAPS last week.

Sandton City terror attack

SANDTON, SOUTH AFRICA – FEBRUARY 17: A view of Sandton City Mall on February 17, 2022 in Sandton, South Africa. It is reported that City of Johannesburg disconnected the electricity supply on Wednesday at the shopping centre over R158m municipal services debt – Photo by Gallo Images/OJ KolotI)

Sandton is one of the plushest regions in South Africa. The wealth-blessed suburb is home to most of the major movers and shakers in Gauteng, and it has a local economy worth billions. However, that hasn’t stopped it from TOPPING a national crime statistic.

Bad reputation? Sandton becomes ‘national hot-spot’ for Commercial Crime

The crime stats for the fourth quarter of 2021/22 were released on Friday. It painted a bleak picture, revealing that everything from murder to sexual assaults were on the rise. Another offence that has skyrocketed in Q4, however, is Commercial Crime.

Now, Commercial Crime is defined as anything ‘financially-motivated and non-violent’. Think about things like embezzlement, confidence tricksters, and fraudulent claims. These are largely white-collar crimes – and they’re highly prevalent in Sandton.

The district is the outright worst-offender on this particular list. Commercial Crime has shot up by almost 44% compared to the same period last year. A total of 348 incidents were recorded here between January to March 2022 – up by 106 from last year.

Sandton sees offences rise by almost 44%

Midrand and Honeydew, both based in Gauteng, feature in the top five. Meanwhile the central stations of Durban and Cape Town are placed third and fourth respectively. Brooklyn, Lyttleton, and Douglasdale all represent GP in the top 10.

Johannesburg Central, meanwhile, saw a 27% decline in Commercial Crime – and recorded 136 fewer incidents than Sandton. The upmarket district has the second-highest rate of increase, trumped only by Cape Town Central, which saw these offences skyrocket by over 70%.

Full list of Commercial Crime hot-spots in SA

All in all, the final table produced by SAPS shares the top 30 stations with us. Rustenburg, Nelspruit, Witbank, and Polokwane are the only ‘hot-spots’ that do not reside in Gauteng, KZN, or the Western Cape. You can see the figures for yourself here:

Sandton’s struggle to limit Commercial Crime in the region has been laid bare by the SAPS crime stats for Q4 of 2021/22 – Photo: SAPS