SA murder rate 30 times Australia’s

South Africa’s murder rate is 30 times higher than Australia and France.

This was revealed by the South African Institute of Race Relations, which said the latest crime statistics showed that the state was losing the war against crime, in particular murder, while failing in its duty to protect citizens.

The institute said that over the past 24 years, almost half a million people had been killed in SA.

This was revealed on Tuesday when police minister Bheki Cele released the annual crime statistics.

Since 1994, there had been 485,187 murders committed – averaging about 20,000 people each year.

Cele likened the crime level in the country to a “war zone”, with 57 people murdered daily across SA.

Two of the country’s most deadly policing precincts are in Port Elizabeth – Bethelsdorp and Kwazakhele.

Both are ranked among the top 30 most dangerous places in SA, while Gelvandale tops the national list in terms of attempted murders.

Startling figures for Nelson Mandela Bay showed rampant violent crime – two people murdered, three raped and four robbed every day.

Institute analyst Gerbrandt van Heerden said that even though the murder rate had declined by almost half since 1994, from 67 to 35.2 per 100,000 people in 2017/2018, it remained relatively high.

Van Heerden said the country’s murder rate was more than 30 times higher than that of Australia and France.

Its crime rate is eight times higher than in the United States, twice the rate of Mexico and is closer to that of countries such as Colombia and El Salvador.

Van Heerden said: “The state is failing utterly in its duty to protect society and all South Africans are paying an extremely heavy price in terms of the collective trauma visited on so many crime survivors and their families.”

The figures showed that almost 15 houses and four businesses are burgled every day in the metro.

The country’s crime rate is closer to that of Colombia and El Salvador