How safe is South Africa for visitors? That's a question we frequently get asked and, while many other websites offer advice and tips, they do not answer the question.

South Africa's murder rate per 100,000 people is 36.8, compared to the USA: 5.4, Europe: 2.8 and Germany: 1.1. But that doesn't tell the real story.

Among South Africans, the Western Cape is frequently seen as a refuge from crime-ridden areas elsewhere in South Africa. But the crime stats have been showing a different picture for some while.

Even that does not explain the true facts of South African society. One gets a bit closer when you start looking at where crime occurs.

Crime levels in more affluent suburbs – like Sea Point and Camps Bay – and in areas that tourists are most likely to visit are comparable to anywhere else in the world. On the other hand, the suburb of Nyanga in Cape Town has the dubious honour of being South Africa's murder capital, but has one of the lowest rates for other violent crimes!

Now to say that you are ten times as likely to be murdered in Nyanga as you are in the USA would also be misleading. The majority of all murders are committed by people known to the victims, and in 61.9% of all cases was a relative

Asked what he intended doing about this, a previous police commissioner responded: "No conventional policing can prevent this type of social crime... you'd have to have a policeman in every home."

What is at the root of South Africa's high crime rates? Despair, frustration, need and lack of education/opportunity. Poverty alone is not a cause, and family murders and violence also stem from the patriarchal system in some communities – notably among black and afrikaans-speaking South Africans.

Drug and alcohol abuse – fuelled by desperation and lack of opportunity – is one of the greatest challenges, especially in the Western Cape. Over 70% of all crime and violence is drug- or alcohol-related and the reason for 95% of all trauma patients in hospitals. Half the people whose unnatural deaths were recorded in Cape Town in 2003 had blood alcohol levels over the legal limit.

Robberies and housebreaking spiral as drug addiction keeps growing. In 2006 CapeInfo reported that R15,000 a day (R5.5 million a year) is spent in Cape Town alone on growing the drug abuse problem – that's what well-meaning visitors hand out to street children.

South Africa's leadership is largely to blame for lack of progress in addressing crime and social issues. The Mbeki government achieved worldwide renown for its denial – about HIV/Aids and crime.

What's of more concern is the attitude of senior ANC politicians to crimes within their own ranks. A former Speaker of Parliament and the Western Cape's former premier were present to give support when one of their colleagues entered prison after being convicted of defrauding Parliament. Support for friends is one thing, but the public message they convey is something entirely different!

And the gravy train (or should that be fleets of BMW's and Mercedes'?) that new ministers "need" to do their jobs – during a recession when everyone else has to tighten their belts – shows how out of touch they are with common South Africans. "Affirmative shopping" has many meanings in South Africa!

Public spending on security for government officials also makes sure they exist in a safety cocoon. Politicians enjoy personal safety; public safety gets lip service.

So to answer the question we posed at the start, one can say that the primary tourist areas are relatively safe compared to other cities worldwide. But these figures are frightening – the gulf between the more affluent and the less affluent is too staggering for words. Archbishop Tutu asks "Why have we lost our deeply African reverence for life?" Where is the traditional African respect for humanity and the sense of uBuntu?

Democracy and "freedom" may have been one milestone, but social change is a greater challenge which requires investment, education and personal opportunities more than policing and justice systems can ever achieve. (And tourism contributes to that change.) But it also requires moral leadership that sets an example.

The September 2008 Foreign Policy magazine listed the world's worst cities for murders as, in order, Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), Caracas (Venezuela), New Orleans (USA), Tijuana (Mexico) and Cape Town. Drugs and gang wars feature strongly as a reason for murders in this top five list.

Sources:
SA Crime Statistics from SA Police Service 2009
United States Crime Rates 1960 - 2008

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