In the fourth quarter of 2021/22, 898 of the 6,083 individuals slain in the country were women, while 4,879 were males. This equates to an average of two women and thirteen males being murdered in South Africa each day.
According to the South African Police Service’s annual report for 2020/21, there were 19,904 murders. There were 2,655 women and 16,367 males among the casualties. This equates to an average of 7 women and 45 men being murdered in South Africa each day.
How many people are killed daily?
Every day in 2022, around 68 people will be killed in South Africa.
The murder rate skyrocketed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A South African was more likely to be murdered than killed in a vehicle accident in 2001, although the murder rate fell by half between 1994 and 2009, from 67 to 34 murders per 100,000 people. Between 2011 and 2015, it stabilized at roughly 32 murders per 100,000 people, despite the fact that the overall number of lives lost had grown owing to population growth. The murder rate jumped to 52 per day in 2016/17, with 19,016 murders registered between April 2016 and March 2017.
What causes these murder statistics?
In the midst of explosive gang activity, the number of innocent bystanders killed in their crossfire has also increased dramatically. Mob justice is frequently used in informal settlements where the authorities are distrusted and residents are frustrated by high crime rates. During the fiscal year 2020/21, around 1,350 killings were attributed to vigilantism and mob justice across the country. Fatal drive-by shootings with known or unknown motivations occur on a daily basis. The Nigerian president boycotted the Africa Economy Summit in Cape Town in September 2019 due to rioting against immigrants that left several dead. Paramedics and police officers are frequently sent into dangerous situations to aid shooting victims, and some paramedics have begun to wear bulletproof vests. Paramedics in Cape Town faced few, if any, attacks in the 1990s, but 288 attacks in 2016, 22 attacks in 2019, 68 attacks in 2020, and more than 60 attacks in 2021. Women suspected of witchcraft are murdered on a daily basis, a practice linked to poverty and illiteracy. Because muggings have taken numerous lives, the courts impose maximum punishments.
Numerous press exposes on crime statistics manipulation have emphasized the presence of incentives not to register violent crime. Nonetheless, adult murder numbers are regarded reliable.
How many of these murders are children?
Although it is estimated that 800 to 900 children are murdered each year, a 2014 study discovered that child homicide is significantly under-reported in police data. Deaths of babies due to abandonment or murder are reported to police as “concealment of birth,” which leads to an error in official statistics. The number of fragile and disabled people that die in residential care institutions as a result of criminal negligence is unclear, although it is attributed to a pervasive and under-reported pattern of abuse.
