Rich doesn't mean safe

2007-08-07 21:21

Johannesburg - Limpopo is the country's safest province, the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Tuesday.

It had the lowest rate of murders, rapes and armed robberies, according to a study based on police statistics released in Polokwane.

Limpopo is also one of South Africa's poorest provinces with a very high rate of unemployment and massive influx of Zimbabwean refugees.

The SAIRR's Kerwin Lebone said the statistics questioned the much-cited arguments that South Africa's high crime rates were a function of poverty and unemployment, and that crimes were committed by foreigners.

In 2006/07 Limpopo's murder rate was 14.1 murders per 100 000 people. That was significantly lower than the national average of 40.5 per 100 000.

The Western Cape led the country's murder ranking for the second year in a row with a rate of 60.7 per 100 000. One was thus about four times more likely to be murdered in the Western Cape than in Limpopo.

At 80.6 per 100 000 the rape rate in Limpopo was well below the national average of 111 per 100 000. The Northern Cape had the worst rape statistics in South Africa with a rate of 142.8 per 100 000.

Limpopo's armed robbery rate of 56.7 per 100 000 was only one-tenth of Gauteng's, which led the national trends with 574.6 per 100 000.

- SAPA