Cape Town also known as the Mother City, has been rank the 8th most violent city in the world, says the Mexican Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice.
The Mexican Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice annually compiles a list of the 50 most-violent cities in the world, determined by the number of reported murders.
Cape Town has recorded the most deaths out of all the countries featured in the top 50, recording 3,065 murders among its population of 4.5 million.
Whereas the most violent city, Tijuana, recorded 2,367 murders, among a much smaller population of 1.8 million.
In the 2019/20 ranking, four South African cities feature in the top 50, with Johannesburg making a return to the list for the first time since 2015. The four include:
- Cape Town (8th)
- Nelson Mandela Bay (24th)
- Durban (35th)
- Johannesburg (41st)
The ranking is dominated by South American cities, with South Africa, Jamaica and US being the only main regional differences.
The top five cities are Mexican cities, led by Tijuana, which has recorded a murder rate of 134.2 people per 100,000 population in 2019. Juarez in Mexico is the only other city to see a murder rate in the triple digits.
Cape Town carried the horrid title of being featured in the top 10 in 2015, where it ranked as the 9th most violent city in the world. However, it then showed gradual improvement over the years, before it settled at 15th position in 2017.
In 2018/19 Cape Town retained its 15th position, but its murder rate spiked to a new high at 66.4 murders per 100,000 population.
In the 2019/20 ranking, Cape Town has pushed to a new record high of 68.3 murders per 100,000 population, and a ranking of 8th overall.
Murder in South Africa
In September 2019, The South African Police Service (SAPS) published crime statistics showing another jump in the number of murders that have been recorded in the country.
For the period of April 2018 to March 2019, the SAPS recorded 21,022 murders in the country, up 3.4% from the previous year.
This averages out to 57.6 murders each day, at a rate of 35.8 murders per 100,000 people.
This continues the decades-long trend of increasing violent crime in South Africa, the number of murders has continued to climb since 2010.
