The so-called trio crimes – carjackings, robbery at businesses and in the homes of South Africans – continues to rise, crime statistics for the first three quarters of the 2016/17 financial year, presented by police in Parliament, showed.

According to the stats, presented by SA Police Service top brass to Parliament's portfolio committee on police, show carjackings were up by 14.9 percent from April 1 to December 31, 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

Robberies at residential properties were up 5.3 percent, while business robberies increased by 6.5 percent.

MPs expressed concern, with Police Minister Nathi Nhleko agreeing police needed to place a greater focus on preventing these crimes.

"Indeed we should all of us be concerned about this," he said.

"We need to definitely zoom into this and deal with this problem."

The stats showed downward trends in most other serious crimes or contact crimes, including murder.

The murder rate for the first trimester of 2016/17 compared was down by 0.1 percent comparable to the first three quarter of 2015/16.

Contact crimes overall had decreased by 1.9 percent, with the only category of this crime increasing being robbery with aggravating circumstances which is up by 6.1 percent.

The contact crimes on the decrease are attempted murder (0.8 percent), sexual offences (6.3 percent), assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm (5.6 percent), common assault (3.7 percent) and common robbery (0.7 percent).

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