Commissioner of Police Ben Groenewald has confirmed that most people reported missing at Police stations are between the ages of 16 to 21.

Commissioner Groenewald said: “A missing person is not a crime if it’s people who run away from home.

“I think it’s a social issue that needs to be addressed within the family, social welfare and churches and not the Police,” he said.

“Unfortunately we receive these complaints and they are treated as missing persons, but it’s not a crime.”

He said it was until the missing person has been connected to a crime.

The Commissioner said he could not give the statistics of missing people.

“Unfortunately I cannot give the statistics,” he said.

“If you look at the statistics coming in people regularly reappear; it seems it’s mostly people between 16 and 21 years old who are still living with their parents.

“I don’t know the reason they ran away because we don’t ask why he or she disappeared.

“In most the cases where people come back, it seems they ran away from home to stay with someone else or for other reasons.”

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