Cape Town, Gqeberha, Durban and Johannesburg all made it onto the Mexican Council for Public Security’s list of the top 50 most violent cities in the world. But the hope is that the newly appointed Police commissioner will be someone who can successfully work towards improving the country’s crime statistics all round.
The Data
The Mexican Council for Public Security created the list of the top 50 most violent cities in the world. It gave the following rankings:
- Cape Town, 11th place
- Gqeberha 23rd place
- Durban 35th place
- Johannesburg 48th place
Their purpose was to demonstrate how violent crime is elsewhere in the world compared to Mexican cities. Using only data for murders per 100 000 people, it ignored all other violent crimes. So it is important to note that the list is not an indicator for all violent crimes but based only on murder rates.
Plus, as criminologist and lecturer at the Stellenbosch University, Guy Lamb, points out, it must not be ignored that the Mexican organisation could only use data that was available. So the list may not be the most precise tool to measure the level of violent crimes across the globe.
However, it does accurately reflect the numbers of murders in our country as far as we know. Since they used data from an organisation called the South Africa Cities Network. The national organisation has a safety reference group that uses SAPS crime data to calculate city murder rates. Which it then releases annual reports on.
The Role of Gang Violence
As Guy Lamb says, this record of violence is something South Africa has been seeing for more than ten years. Especially in cities like Cape Town with a history of gang violence that has been continuously driving up the murder rate. Similar to the problem in many Mexican cities, where organised gangs are often the biggest cause of violence.
Cape Town and the Nelson Mandela bay areas are “largely driven by gun violence”, and groups that use guns are those that cause the most concern. This is because both firearms and ammunition are more easily accessible in these areas. As they can be obtained through organised gangs. The more gangs and the more access to guns there are the higher the violent crime rate will be.
However, Guy Lamp also notes that all cities have areas that are safer. So the higher murder rates wont apply to the entire city. For example, “If we look at the City of Cape Town there are about 10 precincts that account for most of that murder”.