Cape Town - Cape Town is no longer the country’s most violent city as it has been overtaken in those stakes by Nelson Mandela Bay.

This is according to the latest South African Cities Network (SACN) report, which published details of the socio-economic and development challenges faced by the country’s largest metros in 2021 and analyses the state of crime and violence in nine of South Africa’s major cities.

The cities under review were Cape Town, Johannesburg, eThekwini, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay, Mangaung, Buffalo City and Msunduzi.

The report said five of the cities, Buffalo City, Cape Town, eThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay and Msunduzi had a murder rate above the national average of 33.5 murders per 100 000 people, whereas four cities, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, had murder rates below the national average.

The highest increase in murder rates was in Nelson Mandela Bay (60%) and Cape Town (54%), followed by eThekwini (18%), Msunduzi (16%) and Johannesburg (6%).

The report said of the nine cities, Tshwane had the lowest murder rate at 18 per 100 000 people.

While Cape Town recorded 3 074 murders, or three times the 865 murders in Nelson Mandela Bay, the Mother City’s population is nearly four times higher, giving a murder rate of 67 per 100 000 people compared to 71 per 100 000 for Nelson Mandela Bay.

“The increase in the murder rates for these two cities began earlier and has been far larger than in any other cities, suggesting that they are facing a far more complex set of challenges than the other cities,” the report said.

Last month Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen said the deliberate deployment of Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (Leap) officers in the Nyanga area had borne fruit.

Nyanga, often referred to as the murder capital of South Africa, had 161 cases or murder during the 2021/22 financial year, as compared with 203 cases in the 2020/21 financial year, showing a decrease of 42 or 20.6%.

mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za

Cape Argus