Cape Town had the ninth highest homicide rate of cities around the world last year and Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Johannesburg rank within the fifty most dangerous cities, according to research by a Mexican think tank, which noted that there are no other African cities on the top 50 list.
Caracas in Venezuela is the city with the world’s highest homicide rate, according to a report released this month by the London based International Institute for Strategic Studies on its 2016 Chart of Conflict. The chart focuses on armed conflict in urban areas, which is widely predicted to rise in coming years with rapid population movement into towns and the growth of slums.
The IISS drew on data from a Mexican think tank, Seguridad, Justicia Y Paz, which draws up an annual list of the 50 most dangerous cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants. Seguridad drew on South African Police Service reports for the period March 2014 to April 2015 for homicide data and the 2011 SA census for population figures.
Durban is ranked the 41st most dangerous city, Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth) is at 42, and Johannesburg, is at 47. Forty-one of the cities in the list of 50 are in Latin America, of which 21 are in Brazil, eight in Venezuela, and five in Africa. Four US cities and Kingston, Jamaica, are also in the top fifty list of the most dangerous cities.
Cape Town’s homicide rate of 65.53 per 100 000 inhabitants falls between two Colombian cities, Palmira with a rate of 70.88 and Cali in position ten with a rate of 64.27. Durban with a homicide rate of 35.93 and Nelson Mandela Bay with a rate of 35.85 have very similar rates to those of the Brazilian cities of Campina Grande, 36.04, and Porto Allegre, 34.73.
Johannesburg is back on the list with a homicide rate of 30.31, which is slightly below that of the Mexican city of Victoria, 30.5, and one position above that of Macapa in Brazil.
