Limpopo is the country’s safest province, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Tuesday.
It had the lowest rate of murders, rapes and armed robberies, according to a study based on police statistics released in Polokwane.
Limpopo is also one of South Africa’s poorest provinces with a very high rate of unemployment and massive influx of Zimbabwean refugees.
The SAIRR’s Kerwin Lebone said the statistics questioned the much-cited arguments that South Africa’s high crime rates were a function of poverty and unemployment, and that crimes were committed by foreigners.
In 2006/07 Limpopo’s murder rate was 14,1 murders per 100 000 people. That was significantly lower than the national average of 40,5/100 000.
The Western Cape led the country’s murder ranking for the second year in a row with a rate of 60,7/100 000. One was thus about four times more likely to be murdered in the Western Cape than in Limpopo.
At 80,6/100 000 the rape rate in Limpopo was well below the national average of 111/100 000. The Northern Cape had the worst rape statistics in South Africa with a rate of 142,8/100 000.
Limpopo’s armed robbery rate of 56,7/100 000 was only one-tenth of Gauteng’s, which led the national trends with 574,6/100 000. — Sapa