Efforts to determine why crime in South Africa is often accompanied by excessive violence will soon bear fruit, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday.

The justice, crime prevention and security (JCPS) cluster of ministers will present a progress report to Cabinet at the July Lekgotla on the work of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in this regard, he told a media briefing at parliament.

The CSVR was assigned the responsibility at the beginning of last year and the final report would be submitted to government at the end of this year, he said.

Criminal case studies

"An interim report is due this month which will cover some case studies from interviews done with inmates who are serving sentences relating to violence and violence involving young people.

"The next interim report, which will be submitted in due course, will deal with violence and sexual abuse against women."

The final report, therefore, would be discussed by Cabinet at the January Lekgotla next year.

Nqakula said work by the JCPS continued to reduce the levels of contact crimes like murder, rape, indecent and serious and violent assault.

The statistics published in December last year on the first six months of the 2007/08 financial year (1 April to 30 September 2007) indicated a steady decline in contact crimes, he said.

Xenophobic attacks

Asked about the apparent increase in xenophobic attacks on refugees, he said it was a social crime, which was very difficult to police using conventional policing methods.

"So, that matter is not essentially a police matter. The police only come afterwards, when there is already an eruption... they are reacting rather than proacting.

"What needs to happen rather is the communities should understand the political necessity for them to accommodate people who come from other countries. They should have an understanding of that," Nqakula said.

Government's intervention was via communication to educate people about the issue and to persuade them against violent behaviour towards foreign nationals.

If foreign nationals committed crime, it was the responsibility of the police to deal with it.

"But as government, we keep on imploring our people to desist from such behaviour."

People who came into SA do so on several grounds, and therefore they could not simply be violently ejected from the country.

Some of the people who had become victims of xenophobic attacks were actually permanent residents in South Africa.

"And therefore it is very, very wrong of people to deal with this matter in the way that they are doing," he said.

Sapa