Since the birth of our democracy, almost half a million people have been murdered in South Africa.

This is according to a report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), claiming around 445 835 recorded murders between April 1994 and March 2016, reports Times LIVE.

Here’s more:

Despite the alarming figures‚ fewer assassinations are happening now in comparison to the early days of democracy.

A total of 25 965 murders were recorded in the 1994/1995 financial year‚ with an average of 71 killings per day.

The deadliest year for democratic South Africa came in 1995/1996 with 26 877 total killings recorded‚ the IRR survey revealed.

However‚ in 2015/2016 around 51 murders were being reported daily‚ placing the total number of murders in that period at 18 673 – a difference of over 7200.

So things are getting better, it seems.

Well, not so fast.

As the group’s crime analyst, Kerwin Lebone, says, “South Africa still holds a significantly higher murder rate in comparison to others countries”:

The country’s murder rate is almost 29 times higher than that of Australia‚ 30 times higher than the United Kingdom and 45 times higher than Germany.

“South Africans live with horrific levels of violent crime. While the murder rate has fallen since 1994‚ at 31.9 per 100 000 people‚ it remains one of the highest in the world‚” said Lebone.

And get this: Lebone said that SA’s murder crisis is so serious that “some South Africans are more likely to be murdered than the residents of many terror-affected countries”.

While it’s easy to say something to the effect of “don’t be a statistic” and “bring back the death penalty”, we really need to start looking at why we have such a high rate of murders and what we can do about it.

[source:timeslive]