“Crime has been increasing at an escalating rate since 1997. Crime does not affect all people uniformly in South Africa. Johannesburg has the highest volume of serious crime, followed by Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. There is no single satisfactory answer to this question, but rather a number of explanations which help to explain the high levels of crime plaguing the country. Such explanations consider the impact on levels of serious crime of the country’s ongoing political and socio-economic transition, the connection
between the country’s violent past and contemporary criminal behaviour, the impact of the proliferation of firearms, the growth in organised crime, changes in the demographic composition of the country, and the consequences of a poorly performing criminal justice system.”
