While it may be Africa’s most developed country, South Africa also has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world.
A daily average of 75 murders and 400 robberies with aggravating circumstances were recorded in the year to February 2023.
Experts have warned that the country’s police are fighting a losing battle against crime.
“It’s not getting better, it is getting worse,” said Anton Koen, a former police officer who now runs a private security firm that specialises in tracking and recovering hijacked and stolen vehicles.
“The murder rate is the highest in 20 years, violence is getting worse because our justice system seems to be failing us, the public of South Africa.”
There are fewer than 150,000 police officers in South Africa for a population of 62 million people.
Yet, in comparison, more than 2.7 million private security officers are registered in the country, making the security industry one of the world’s largest.
This feels like it says something about privatisation… and that policing doesn’t work.