People feel unsafe in S. Africa

A survey released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) on Tuesday show that many people are living in fear of crime in the country.

The Victims of Crime Survey was released by Statistician general, Dr. Pali Lehohla in Pretoria at a press briefing. He said many people living in the country feel that violent crimes are increasing.

The report shows that 43.3 percent of Indian and Asian headed households are afraid to walk in the park alone or go to open spaces. About 30.4 percent African and Black headed families and 46 percent of white headed households also fear to do the same.

"Despite the improvement over the last five years, South Africans feel that violent and property crimes are increasing to the extent that the majority of households do not feel safe enough to walk alone in parks or to allow their children to play freely in their neighborhoods. One in five households do not allow their children to play on their own in the area they live," Lehohla said.

About 90 percent of households believe young girls are vulnerable to human trafficking. According to the survey, people have lost faith in the police with the level of satisfaction having declined from 64.2 percent in 2011 to 58.8 percent in 2015/2016.

Many believe the police do nothing when called upon to assist. It also showed that the police have declined in visibility in the last five years.

"This is an indictment, that people have lost hope in what police could do about crime. This fear affects production in the country," he said.

Over 41.1 percent of people in South Africa believe that crime has increased.

This is despite that South African households experienced a decline in housebreaking and home robberies from 931,000 incidents in 2010 to 807,000 in 2015/16. Theft also declined by 2 percent last year, according to the Crime Statistics of 2016. Endit