There are always multiple sides to a story, and on the other side of Cape Town’s numerous ‘World Best’ praises, comes the one thing that always itches at our accolades: the danger factor.
Recently, Cape Town and three other South African cities (Johannesburg, Pretoria and Ekurhuleni) tied for “worst possible scores” in the security/crime index part of Cities@Risk by crime and risk organisation/consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
“Outside of the Americas, companies operating in South Africa face the most serious crime risks,” said Maplecroft.
Maplecroft’s analysis ranked 579 urban centres with populations over one million people to create its assessment, as well as four security pillars: crime, civil unrest, conflict and terrorism.
It identified Latin America as the crime hotspot of the world and Kabul as the riskiest city overall and went on to express that “22% of the world’s largest cities are at high or extreme risk from a combination of these security challenges, and more than 7% record high or extreme risk scores on at least one measure.”
The data follows another blow for the Mother City from March, which saw Cape Town as part of the most dangerous cities in the world, ranking 11th.
However, Cape Town isn’t taking this all lying down. Recently, a new Safety Dashboard that will provide real-time data to provincial safety stakeholders has been launched with WC Premiere Alan Winde, Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen, and the Provincial Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, officially launching the Western Cape Government’s Safety Dashboard. It may not change our ranking tomorrow, but it’s certainly a proactive step in the right direction.
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Picture: @dunesbeachrides / Instgram