Opposition parties, security experts and the general public have reacted with dismay to South Africa's crime statistics, which were released on Tuesday.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa revealed that sexual offences increased by 10 percent, business robberies soared by 41 percent and car hijackings increased by 5 percent.

However, murder has decreased by 3 percent, cash-in-transit heists dropped by 2 percent, bank robberies went down by 29 percent and incidents of assault dropped by at least 4 percent.

Despite this drop the minister expressed his unhappiness: "It is important that we admit our challenges and seek to find concrete means of addressing these challenges."

Afriforum's Kallie Kriel said the latest figures prove South Africans have little reason to feel safe.

"Unfortunately that [crime figures] will lead to situations where people feel less safe. I think that should be one of the things that inspire us to fight this scourge of crime and to urge government to adhere to their constitutional responsibility," Kriel said.

The ANC and opposition parties are united in the condemnation of the latest crime statistics.

The ruling party remarked that the figures reflect the urgency to push for changes to the Criminal Procedure Act which would give police more power.

Unsurprisingly, the Democratic Alliance was outraged saying the numbers indicate why Minister Mthethwa reneged on his predecessors promise to release stats bi-annually.

Meanwhile, the Independent Democrats voiced concern at the unacceptably high levels of violence in the country while the Freedom Front Plus is worried that house robberies have jumped by over 50 percent.

Former specialised cop units to be re-assembled

South Africa's National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele has stated that members of the country's former specialised police units will be re-assembled.

Cele joined Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa in releasing the crime statistics on Tuesday.

Mthethwa and Cele expressed concern about sexual offences and crimes against women and children which remain dangerously high.

Cele said his office is in the process of conducting an audit which will determine where the country?s detectives, who operated in specialised fields, find themselves.

Cele said it is an attempt to try and re-assemble them to tackle priority crimes such as those committed against women and children.

"They will be in different small stations. We are doing an audit to pull them together and make sure that they stay together and they respond much easier," the top cop said.

Cele added that more resources have to be ploughed into these units to ensure their efficiency.