South Africa's murder rate declined further last year, dropping by some 300 cases, but house robberies have increased by more than a quarter, according to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

Releasing the police's crime statistics for the 2008/09 financial year on Tuesday, he also said police were concerned at a 41.5 percent hike in the number of business robberies, mostly targeting small businesses.

Cash-in-transit robberies declined by 2.3 percent during the period, which ended on 31 March this year.

"This, we agree, is not much decrease compared to the same period last year. It is a decrease nevertheless," he told a media briefing at Parliament.

Bank robberies dropped by 29.2 percent, and ATM attacks by ten percent, while figures since January this year would seem to indicate that the ATM statistic was dropping even further.

Mthethwa said the police were concerned at the 27 percent increase in house robberies.

"It is one of the crimes that are the most intrusive and personalised," he said.

"We simply cannot tolerate a situation where people do not feel safe in their homes."

House robberies affected people from all walks of life, and were not restricted to wealthy areas.

He bemoaned the "uniquely random and violent character" of the 2.1 million serious crimes reported in South Africa last year, of which nearly a third were so-called 'contact' crimes.

Mthethwa said those most vulnerable remained the poor, as evidenced by the nature of most of the 18 148 murders reported.

Just more than half of the victims died of stab wounds and some 70 percent were the results of disagreements turned violent, which suggested they happened in poor socio-economic settings, deputy commissioner Chris de Kock said.

Mthethwa and new police commissioner Bheki Cele said they recognised that the police needed to do more, and had begun an audit of how they deployed their human and material resources, and the timing of that deployment.

"Am I happy, no, I'm not happy," Cele told reporters.

"You cannot be happy when 10 people are killed let alone 18 000," he said.

He said the steps police planned to take included pushing ahead with the controversial change to section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act to give police wider powers to shoot at dangerous criminals, strengthening speciality units, and improving the way police stations respond to distress calls.

Mthethwa said it was vital to have "greater engagement with affected communities".

"Communities must ensure that those who represent them on the community policing forums are an equal partner with the police in establishing the programme of action in addressing the needs and to monitor the implementation thereof.

"This engagement will assist us in refining our approach to dealing with house robberies," Mthethwa said.

Mthethwa said murder and attempted murder had been steadily declining over the past couple of years, and the police were pleased that they continued to do so.

During the year under review murder dropped by 3.4 percent and attempted murder by 4.3 percent.

Common assault was 4.3 percent down, and assault with intention to commit grievous bodily harm down by 4.7 percent.

However, the 2.7 percent increase in stock theft was a matter of serious concern, as it impacted negatively on people in rural communities.

Sexual offences increased by 10.1 percent. Part of this could be accounted for by changes in legislation, which had introduced new categories of crime. But it was still "not good".

Mthethwa said the release of the statistics was not merely to quantify crime or create a debate in society.

"We believe that this is a call to action for government, business, NGOs and communities," he said.

"As you will observe, in the various breakdowns of crime trends over the past fiscal year, there are areas where we are making progress. At the same time there are those where we are still lagging behind.

"Nevertheless, the ANC government remains unmoved in its commitment to securing a better life for all, and the fight against crime is an integral part of ensuring this better life."

He said contact crime currently accounted for 32.7 percent of all crime.

It was this form of crime that was generally associated with violence.

T he police were therefore encouraged by the decrease in five of the seven contact crime categories.