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According to a recent report prepared by the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (CPSC) Nelson Mandela Bay has now been ranked as the most dangerous city in South Africa. The CPSC is a Non-Government Organisation which has been publishing its annual ranking of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world for the past ten years.

Standing at 78,33 murders per 100,000 people in 2023, Nelson Mandela Bay has slipped into the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world from 24th in 2019 to 9th today, with only cities from Mexico, Haiti and Ecuador being more dangerous. According to the report, Nelson Mandela Bay’s murder rate has increased by a staggering 37% in the last year alone. The DA raised the alarm on NMB’s crime trends last year already when we launched our campaign against crime through our petition.

Whilst the figures from this report are shocking, and lay bare the ANC government’s inability to curb crime in our largest metropolitan cities, the City of Cape Town is the only one that has been consistently achieving improved results year on year. From being the 8th most dangerous city in 2019, the city now finds itself 9 places lower, with a substantial decrease from 2022 to 2023. This proves that the Western Cape Government, in partnership with the City of Cape Town’s LEAP programme are making inroads in the fight against violent crimes in and around the city.

The ANC has showed that the centralised, cookie cutter, model of policing does not work in South Africa while the DA in the Western Cape is proving that devolution of policing powers can work. We need urgent reform of our police management and our policing strategy. We need to bring policing closer to communities and restore discipline and professionalism within the ranks of the SAPS.

The DA will now write to the chairperson of the police portfolio committee to request that the authors of this report are invited to present their findings and insights into the most effective, modern models of policing which have yielded improved results over the past decade.

Issued by Andrew Whitfield MP - DA Shadow Minister of Police