By Chimaimba Banda
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi has dismissed research by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), which indicated crime in the country was at an all-time high.
"I will release my statistics when I am ready. I am not going to worry about what the ISS does," said Selebi.
The ISS said Johannesburg had become a more dangerous place, with violent crimes skyrocketing. The results of the study, Crime in South Africa: A Country and Cities Profile, were made public today (NZT).
"The expectation which many had in 1994 that crime, especially violent crime, would decrease has not materialised. Crime figures for 1999 indicate that the number of crimes is at an all-time high," said researchers Martin Schonteich and Antoinette Louw.
The researchers noted that violent crime had risen more than any other crime across the country.
"In 1999, a third of all crimes recorded by the police were violent," they said.
Johannesburg had by the far the highest rates of both violent and property crime with Pretoria coming second.
"The risk of becoming a victim of crime is highest in Johannesburg and lowest in Durban," the researchers said, quoting 1999 police statistics. Some 117 murders per 100 000 were recorded in Johannesburg, compared to only 37 in Pretoria.
Between 1994 and 1999 the levels of violent crime in Johannesburg increased by 17 percent.
People in Johannesburg were 13 times more likely to be hijacked as those in Cape Town.
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