Four South African cities have been ranked among the top 50 most violent cities in the world, thanks to their high murder rates.
These are Cape Town, Mandela Bay, Durban and Johannesburg.
Experts say bringing down South Africa’s murder rate will require a significant effort from the police and local governments.
The list was assembled by the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice which compared cities that have populations larger than 300 000 and available murder statistics.
It then calculated the murder rate by the number of murders per 100 000 people for the period 2021/2022.
As with previous years, the ranking is dominated by South American cities, with South Africa, Jamaica and the US being the only main regional outliers.
Zamora, Mexico, ranked as the most violent city in the world, with over 196 murders per 100 000 people. The top 10 is completely dominated by Mexican cities, first through to eighth position being within the region.
The US city of St Louis and Jamaica’s capital, Kingston, are the only non-Mexican cities featured in the top 10.
While Cape Town has fallout out of the top 10, it still holds the top dishonour of having the highest number of murders overall, with 2 911 murders recorded for the period, giving a murder rate of 62.22 people murdered per 100 000.
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