Edit: I mean what is the reason that it has so much crime? Hasn’t it become worse in the last several years? Why?
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It has one of the highest murder rates in the world, in addition to high levels of other violent crime.
As for why there’s so much crime, there’s a lot of reasons. Poverty, lack of adequate social services, corruption, a criminal justice system that doesn’t have the resources to tackle the problems, etc.
Violent crime, such as armed robbery, rape, carjacking, mugging, and “smash-and-grab” attacks on vehicles, is common. There is a higher risk of violent crime in the central business districts of major cities after dark.
I read some comments about South Africa in a semi-related post a couple of weeks ago. Some of them blew my mind. This one dude was saying that he was on a business trip in South Africa. He and his co-worker were about to leave to go to work. The South African co-worker started taking off all of their jewelry before getting in the car and putting it in the glove box. They said that armed gangs would stop you and just rip it off of you. Once they got to work they entered through a locked garage and then through an entry gate with armed guards. They then put their jewelry back on and it was just business as usual.
Another person said that after leaving South Africa and moving to Europe, they couldn’t sleep without bars on the windows. A lot of the homes have the bedrooms down a hallway with a barred gate. If anyone breaks into the house they are unable to get into the bedroom area. They have free reign of the rest of the house though. Shit like that made me realize I don’t need to be going to South Africa anytime soon.
Edited for phone auto-correct
I don’t know the reason why it’s so corrupt, but I saw a really cool YouTube video a couple years ago where it is now legal to put flamethrowers attached to the underside of your doors to napalm the fuck out of carjackers. That’s the only thing I know about South Africa. Cars with flamethrowers to fry carjackers and Neil Blomkamp alien movies.
There are three main ethnic groups. The ruling Government, the ANC who are the black South Africans who have almost a reverse apartheid against the whites. The whites have two rival ethnicities that have never really coexisted. There is the English origin and the Dutch origin. The Dutch being the Afrikaans, someone of whom don’t speak English, only Afrikaans. The National Anthem is in three disparate parts, one in each language. Going back to the Boer War it has been an unsafe country.
TBH, any news coming to my country from SA these days involves a Bulgarian mobster being killed in a brutal way, along with his guards and family. A lot of BG mobster escaped there back in the day.
Hey I’m a South African so I feel like maybe I could help give some perspective.
South Africa had a tumultuous history with apartheid (read up on it there is so much pain from this era) – blows my mind that it never ended in a civil war. There’s still a lot of old wounds, hatred and anger about our history. Lots of Africans still have a lot of anger against white people and rightly so, because they were put into positions of disadvantage that still continue to this day. This anger manifests in daily life where people just grow up in a lifestyle of hating the other. This is why crime can be so violent in the country. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone, but it is a common thread.
Racism and a sense of entitlement is strong as they believe they are owed their dues, and hey why should we work for it, when the government gets what they want without working for anything?? People learn by example. (corruption is rife but this is a whole other can of worms to open).
Since the government does nothing to help the poor and disadvantaged they feel they need to take it into their own hands often commiting crime to get what they want. Lack of education is also a big factor. A huge majority of those growing up during apartheid never got the education they deserve. Lots of the crime committed are by people who have never been able to have an education so they feel like their life has just kind of led them into a life of crime.
Inequality especially wealth inequality is still very common in the country… when you see your neighbour has everything and you have nothing, wouldn’t you want to get a piece of it (knowing full well you can get away with it because the police don’t give a shit and are overwhelmed by bad governance)?
EDIT: another poster also spoke about desperation. Desperation is also a huge factor. If you lose your job there are no government programs etc to help you. You are on your own. If you have a family of 5 where you’re the sole breadwinner and no one is willing to help you, you will steal to survive.
The Apartheid government in my province turned a blind eye to the formation of various gangs in Cape Town in the early 1950’s which grew exponentially over the decades terrozing local communities.
These gangs(now with links to international organised crime groups)now have thousands of gang members.
Gang members are often dropped by car in the early hours of the morning by car in middle class neighborhoods to rob targeted homes.
Desperation, lack of education & opportunity and a few other compounding factors.
SA currently has approx 33% unemployment rate, and even for those employed there’s a significant amount who are only just above the poverty line. Add in a national infrastructure that can’t cope with this and a lack of good options == desperate people to whom life is cheap, unfortunately.
Look at any of the most dangerous countries and you’ll find a common theme: people who have virtually nothing and no alternatives. It’s not unique to SA – Brazil, India, and various other African countries all have similar issues. SA just got extra screwed with the compounding legacy of apartheid.
SA is also the most unequal country in the world. It’s one of the richest in Africa, but that’s because of things like mineral and resource wealth and a large industrial base that in large part kickstarted during apartheid. It’s got more poor people than places like Botswana or Libya, and they’re jammed right next to comparatively rich people, so there’s both incentive and opportunity, the latter of which is often lacking in other countries.
Lots of places have poverty, but the two unique factors that make it dangerous are the high inequality (Brazil is probably the only other country that has worse inequality) and very high unemployment (round 40-45%).
So not only are people very poor, there are few avenues where they can improve their situation.
High inequality within a country leads to a lot of resentment. That manifests itself in violent crime.
The inequality also means it is expensive to live here, but the few jobs that do exist for poor people also pay very badly. So people resort to criminal activity.
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