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The quarterly crime stats, released by police minister Bheki Cele on Friday and covering July through to September, paint a grim picture for South Africa as a whole.

For many years, the Western Cape has been referred to as the country’s murder capital. At one stage, Cape Town was crowned the murder capital of the continent.

Friday’s stats show that KwaZulu-Natal reported the highest number of murders during the three-month period, with 1 208, with Gauteng in second with 1 091.

The Western Cape was third, with 1 013 murders, but that doesn’t really paint the full picture.

If you look at police stations with the most reported murders, you’ll find that the Western Cape has eight out of the top 10 stations:

Image:BusinessTech

In total, between July 1 and September 31, the SAPS recorded 5 107 murders across the country, which is a decrease of 6,2% from the same period last year.

That may sound like good news, but during the previous quarter, spanning from April through to the end of June this year, 3 466 people were murdered.

BusinessTech goes into greater depth here, including a per capita breakdown, but this bit stands out:

When looking at the key causative factors for South Africa’s murders, the SAPS said that the largest portion of murders are the results of arguments and misunderstanding (675 murders). Road rage incidents and provocation are also included in this tally.

Residential, business and street robberies are the second biggest factor which led to murders in the country (304 murders), followed by vigilantism and mob justice (203 murders). Gang-related murders also rank highly (200).

Clearly, we are a nation where anger boils over into violence all too easily.

That’s just one of the reasons why our women and children live in a perpetual state of fear.

[source:businesstech]