Cape Town Crime Statistics 2009

I have done some research and found an extremely balanced report about the crime statistics in Cape Town, which should be of interest to visitors and tourists who are concerned about their safety.

It is a PDF report located on the government website and can be found here:

Crime Statistics in Cape Town (2001 to 2008)

This report highlights the following.

• Cape Town (and indeed the whole of South Africa) has areas of extremely great wealth (very first world), and areas of great poverty (very third world) juxtaposed alongside each other.



• The vast majority of crimes committed in Cape Town occur in the poorer areas where tourists wouldn’t go.

I have some detailed comments to make on the report, to help you as a tourist understand what the statistics might mean to you.

Murder / Rape in Cape Town

See pages 17 to 20 of the Cape Town Crime Statistics Report.

• If you add up the Cape Town murders by police district (page 17 of the report), 80% of the murders are in areas I would never dream of going to, and which hold zero interest for tourists. So in terms of actual exposure and risk, you should only be thinking whether the last 20% of murders are of any real risk to you as a tourist.



• If you consider Cape Town murder by police precint (map on page 18 of the report), where you see that a small percentage of murders seem to occur in the better areas eg. Hout Bay, Diep River, Cape Town and Maitland, you must know that those police precincts cover not only affluent areas of interest to tourists, but ALSO small pockets of the poorer areas, which are where these crimes are occurring. Again these poorer areas are of no real interest to tourists.



• If you have a look at a map of Cape Town, you”ll see that the areas of interest to tourists are almost exactly the opposite of the areas in which these crimes are prevalent.



• The exact same comments above apply to the rape statistics in Cape Town.

Drug Related Crime in Cape Town

See pages 23 & 24 of the See pages 17 to 20 of the Cape Town Crime Statistics Report.

Drug Crimes have a slightly different distribution to the Murder and Rape crime statistics in Cape Town.

There are three areas that need to be brought to the attention of a tourist. They are Cape Town city centre, Woodstock/Salt River, and Sea Point.

My comments are as follows about this.

• Don’t walk around Cape Town after dark except in the areas that I have pointed (in other articles on my site) out as being OK (but still stay alert at all times). Here are the links to those articles:

  Walking Alone in Cape Town | Safe Places | Tourist Information
  
  

  Crime & Safety in Cape Town: Pedestrians / People Walking On Foot

  
  

  Quick Guide to the Cape Town City Bowl. If you mouse over the red dots on the eastern part of the map on this page, you’ll find a description of the safety issues in Woodstock. Basically, avoid Woodstock except if you visit the Biscuit Mill on a Saturday morning.

  
  

  Sea Point, Green Point & Mouille Point Area Guide. Use common sense when walking around here late at night. Some parts are OK (ie busy and full of people visiting restaurants). Other parts just seem slightly seedy. You’ll easily be able to see for yourself.




• You aren’t likely to become a victim of a drug crime unless you go and seek it out anyway.

Business Crime

Pages 21 & 22 of the Cape Town Crime Statistics Report.

This covers crime at all types of commercial premises. There have been a handful of hold-ups at restaurants with paying customers (isolated incidents) in the past 3 years.

I don’t know whether my perceptions are skewed here, because it can be really easy to misinterpret statistics, but I feel more nervous when in London about being a victim of a terrorist incident that I do of this type of crime in Cape Town.

Tourist Safety – the Bottom Line

You don’t need to be constantly fearful and concerned with your safety here in Cape Town. You certainly don’t need to let fear overshadow your whole holiday at all. The major crime that makes international headlines is socio-economic in nature and is unlikely to touch you unless you specifically behave wildly and rashly and/or go into what I would call “dodgy areas”.

Just be cautious, and display common sense. If unsure about anything, err on the side of caution.

Tourists are by and large exposed to opportunistic criminals, due to occasional carelessness. So they encounter pick-pockets, and criminals who for example grab their cameras and jewelry and run off. This minor, non life threatening crime is unfortunately as prevalent as in any major African city.