by Newsbreak Producer, Tashlan Naidoo - Crime analysts believe that while incidents of murder, sexual offences and robbery have decreased in the past six months, organised crime seems to be on the rise. Police Minister Senzo Mchunu recently released crime stats for the period from July to September 2024, which indicated that sexual offences have decreased by 2.5%, murder decreased by 5.8% and robbery with aggravating circumstances by 8.8%. The only increases were seen in attempted murder with an increase of 2.2%, assault GBH rose by 1% and commercial crime went up by 18.5%. Independent crime analyst, Dr Chris de Kok says police need to capacitate themselves better when it comes to dealing with organised crime such as the construction mafia, kidnapping and illegal mining activity among others. de Kok has commended the crime intelligence department for their work in rooting out drug smuggling. According to police, there have been several arrests of drug mules at the O.R Tambo airport in Johannesburg, while hundreds of millions of rands worth of cocaine has been confiscated at various sea ports over the course of the year. Reflecting on crime in 2024, de Kok explains what needs to be done for a safer society, going forward...