Report shows South Africans feel unsafe, especially at night

South Africa’s people believe the country is one of the most unsafe in the world, with just 30% say they feel safe walking in the streets at night.

There is only one country in the world whose people feel more unsafe – Ecuador, where just 27% of citizens don’t feel safe walking at night.

That’s according to the latest annual update on global safety done by the Gallup polling group and covering 2023.

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Citizens feel unsafe

On par with South Africa in terms of people feeling unsafe at night is Liberia, poverty-stricken and wracked by conflict over the past 20 years, where only 30% of people feel safe in the streets at night.

Yet the rest of the world – including countries in conflict zones – appears a lot safer to the inhabitants of its countries.

Gallup, whose report was released this week, said that in 2023, 70% of adults worldwide said they feel safe walking alone at night where they live, which is considerably higher than it was a decade ago and at most, points in Gallup’s nearly 20-year trend.

However, progress has stalled on this measure in the past several years and slightly fewer people today feel safe than in 2020, when a record-high 72% felt safe.

“People continue to feel the least safe in sub-Saharan Africa (51%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (47%),” said the report.

“Further, feelings of safety have declined more in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region over the past two decades.

“In Latin America and the Caribbean, the percentage who said they feel safe has never topped 50%.”

Gallup’s finding on South Africans’ fear for their personal safety echoes Statistics South Africa’s Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey (GPSJS) 2023- 24, which reveals a decline in the sense of safety among individuals walking in their neighbourhoods during the day and at night since 2019-20.

Respondents were asked how safe they felt walking in their neighbourhoods alone.

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Report looks at safety in the dark

The sense of safety in the dark among individuals aged 16 and older has declined, dropping from 41.8% in 2019-20 to 34.9% in 2023-24.

This trend is particularly pronounced among females, who reported feeling less safe walking in their neighbourhoods after dark compared to males.

Additionally, the percentage of people who feel safe walking alone during the day fell from 86.6% in 2019-20 to 84.8% in 2020-21, continuing to decline throughout the reporting period and reaching 80,4% in 2023-24.

In most economically developed countries and territories with strong rule of law, high majorities of residents said they feel safe walking alone in their areas at night.

The same is true in countries where populations are under tighter state control.

For example, these feelings were nearly universal in 2023 in countries such as Kuwait (99%), Singapore (94%), Tajikistan (92%), Saudi Arabia (92%) and the United Arab Emirates (90%).

At the same time, Gallup’s research has noted a decline in confidence in law and order among South Africans. In 2022, the poll showed a law and order index of 59, a figure which decline to 58 in 2023, indicating a decline in trust in the authorities.

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To compile the law and order index, Gallup asked:

• In the city or area where you live, do you have confidence in the local police force?

• Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you live?

• Within the past 12 months, have you had money or property stolen from you or another household member?

• Within the past 12 months, have you been assaulted or mugged?

As the country perceived by its people as being the least safe, Ecuador “has spiralled into a deep security crisis”, said Gallup as it has become an increasingly important node in global cocaine trafficking.

“Gang violence and homicides have spiked as a result, with Ecuador’s murder rate reaching nearly 50 per 100 000 residents in 2023, one of the highest rates in the world”

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