State of Crime and Safety in South African Cities 2020 Report

This report presents an analysis of the state of crime and violence in nine of South Africa’s major cities: Johannesburg, Cape Town, eThekwini, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay, Mangaung, Buffalo City and Msunduzi. The data upon which the analysis is based comes from the annual crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for the financial year from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019. While the data is released at national, provincial and police precinct levels, it was aggregated to city level to give a more accurate representation of how crime is distributed, and the types of interventions needed. The continuous time series of city-level crime statistics spans 14 years, from 2005/06 to 2018/19, providing longitudinal trends of selected types of crime in these cities.