A startling new report has found that more than half of all South Africans who fall victim to theft or robbery do not report the crimes to the police, citing a pervasive belief that law enforcement is unable to help.
The findings, released on Tuesday by Statistics South Africa in its latest Victims of Crime Survey, paint a picture of a populace adapting to high crime levels, often by restricting their own movements or resigning themselves to a sense of powerlessness. The survey moves beyond official police statistics to capture the lived experiences of households and individuals.
According to the report, housebreaking was the most common crime affecting South African households, with at least 1.5 million incidents impacting over 1.1 million families last year. Despite its prevalence, fewer than half of these cases were ever reported to a police station.
“The majority of households indicated the reason they did not report housebreaking incidents… was because police could not do anything due to lack of proof,” the survey found.
Theft of personal property was the top crime against individuals, with 1.3 million incidents affecting over 1.2 million people. The data shows crime rates spiked in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal during the months of June and December.
The survey also shed light on the measures—or lack thereof—that citizens take to protect themselves. Of those who have taken steps, approximately 30% said they had resorted to only walking during safer hours. Alarmingly, over half of surveyed individuals aged 16 and older had taken no steps at all to protect themselves from crime. Nearly a quarter of that group expressed a feeling of futility, believing “there was nothing they could do.”
This sentiment is reflected in how safe people feel in their own neighborhoods. While 81% of South Africans feel safe walking alone during the day, that figure plummets to just 36% after sunset.
The report also highlighted a stark difference in the experience of crime across genders. Among women who were assaulted, nearly half said their attacker was a spouse or intimate partner. In contrast, men were more likely to be assaulted by strangers.
The survey underscores crime as a defining challenge of daily life for many South Africans, revealing a critical trust deficit in the criminal justice system and a population often feeling left to fend for itself.