South Africa Nineteen Ninety four's photo.

 South Africa Nineteen Ninety four's photo.

While police crime statistics show that there were 21 683 murders in the year 2000, the Medical Research Council puts the figure at 32 482. The Department of Home Affairs at 30 068. This is a third more murders than reported by SAPS, a discrepancy of more than 10 000 murders. The Medical Research Council’s statistics reveal that 89 murders are committed, on average, every day in South Africa. Interpol claims even higher numbers of murders in South Africa. While SAPS claims that there were 26 883 murders in 1995, Interpol claims that there were 54 298 “murders known to the police” in 1995/96. Interpol’s figures are approximately double the numbers of “recorded murders” in South Africa. According to Interpol, South Africa has the highest recorded per capita murder rate of the countries covered in their report for 1998, second only to Columbia. In that year, Interpol recorded the per capita murder rate in the USA as 6 per 100 000, while in South Africa it was 59 per 100 000. In the first eight years (of peace) of the new democratic dispensation, under the ANC, an average of 24 206 murders were committed each year. However, if the Interpol statistics are accepted, then the murder rate in South Africa during the ANC years has averaged 47 882 per year...