Cape Town 2nd Most Violent City in the World

The ANC government had mastered delivering lower crime statistics, but remained amateur when it came to protecting the country's people, Cope Western Cape premier candidate, Alan Boesak said on Sunday.

"Crime has installed itself into the soul of [our] country... it has been coming at us with such regularity that all of us, on occasion, become immune to bad news," Boesak said.

Boesak said reported robberies with aggravating circumstances may have declined by 7.4 percent, but by 2004 there had already been an increase of almost 58 000 reported cases since the 1994 elections.

And while common assault declined by 6.6 percent last year, statistics had rocketed since 1994, with more than 61 000 incidents annually.

Indecent assaults had also more than doubled in the decade between 1994 and 2004, so a 2.1 percent decline in 2008 "was pretty meaningless when measured this way".

"Last year, Cape Town was awarded the dubious honour of ranking second in the United States foreign policy ranking of the top five murder capitals of the world," said Boesak.

"The only city more violent than Cape Town is Caracas in Venezuela. It is a disgrace."

He said Cape Town reported a murder rate of 62 persons per 100 000. With approximately 3.5 million people, that equated to almost six people violently dying in Cape Town daily.