SPEAK OUT

STATISTICS
MURDER IN SOUTH AFRICA, JUNE, 2001

(This article written by Charlene Smith (c) appeared in the Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, South Africa, 21 June 2001)

A South African is 12 times more likely to be murdered than the international norm, according to Professor Mahomed Dada head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Natal.

Dada is participating in a huge research project into fatalities headed by the Medical Research Council and Unisa. It reveals that too that, a South African is two and a half times more likely to be murdered than to die in a road traffic accident.

According to a two year surveillance study at 37 mortuaries in six provinces by the Medical Research Council and Unisa, a teenager in Cape Town is more likely to be shot dead, than to die in a traffic accident or die of normal causes.

These horrifying figures which have shocked researchers were conducted during government's year long moratorium on crime statistics, and are part of a long term project which the MRC hopes will be taken up by government departments. By allowing the dead to speak, the MRC has obtained the most reliable figures yet on deadly crime in South Africa.

The study covers 45% of those that died in South Africa in 2000, and 25% who died in 1999 - the MRC aims to cover at least 80% of all violent death as its surveillance deepens. The surveillance covers all deaths - after death every corpse, even if removed by a private undertaker, is either taken first to the mortuary for the death to be recorded, or the undertaker is compelled to submit details of the cause of death. However, every unnatural death has to go to state mortuaries for an autopsy to be performed to determine cause of death.

The only country with a higher murder rate than SA is drug-ridden Columbia in Latin America. But no other country in the world is so violent to its children.

The statistics which will be released in Cape Town on August 7 in their entirety show that

* A South African is more likely to be shot dead than to die in a traffic accident - and SA has the world's worst road death toll.

* Young black males aged 18 to 30 are more likely to die violently, than naturally or in a motor vehicle accident. In the Western Cape in 1995, as an example, tuberculosis was the biggest natural killer in males aged 15 to 44 with 7,7% succumbing to this disease - while 69% died of injuries caused either as a result of homicide or accidents. Among women 10,2% died of TB while 41% perished as a result of injuries.

* Since 1990 guns have replaced knives as the weapon of choice for killers. In Durban as an example, 16% of homicides in 1988 were caused by guns, that figure leapt to 47,5% in 1995, and rose further to 61,8% in 1998; compared to 57% fatal stabbings in 1988 and 25,1% in 1998.

* The murder of children - whether deliberate or children being hit by stray bullets is another "disturbing trend," according to Professor Dada, who led the Kwa Zulu Natal research. In Durban's main Gale Street mortuary 12% of children under the age of 10 who did not die natural deaths were murdered; and 42% of children aged between 10 and 18.

* Of the 2 465 cases recorded at the Gale Street mortuary in Durban in 2000, only 103 cases (4,2%) were of natural causes but this was better than in 1999 when only 1% of cases were of natural causes. In both those years homicide accounted for half of all autopsies, and one third accidents. Overall close to four times more times more men died violently than women.

* The rate of murder in South Africa in 1996 was 61 per 100 000 compared to an international norm of 5,5 per 100 000; and new data to be released in August shows it has not declined. In other words, you are 12 times more likely to get murdered in SA than in any country in the world but for Columbia. Police reported in 1998 that 65 people were murdered each day.

Dr Sandra Marais, senior specialist scientist of the MRC's Crime, Violence and Injury Lead programme in Cape Town notes that in 1995 the major causes of death for babies aged from birth to four was injuries, coupled with low birthweight and perinatal causes. However, a child aged five to 14 in the Western Cape is more likely to be beaten to death, shot, stabbed or die from injuries than die a natural death - 74% of all boys and 71% of all girls." And thereafter violent deaths decline with age. Marais points out that "in the normal course of things the probability of a child aged five to 14 dying of natural causes is much lower than for younger children."

By 1999/2000 the childhood age most common for violent death was 15 to 19, with 66,3% of children who died being murdered, 24,4% died in accidents and 5,2% died as a result of suicide in Cape Town.

Marais says: "The data from 1999 and 2000 is incredibly high, 41% of children who die under the age of 19 are murdered, most often with firearms (50% of cases). In every age category for children under 19, firearm deaths were the most frequent cause of violent death. I doubt that children get murdered to this extent anywhere in the world.

"Compared to this 42% of children who die, perish in accidents, mostly as pedestrians in motor vehicle accidents, but also from drowning, burns and other accidents."

The research was initiated, according to Research co-ordinator, Dr Mohammed Seedat of the Unisa Institute for Social Sciences, because of "the lack of reliable and quality data on the who, what, how and when of homicide and other non-fatal injuries. Most of our prevention and curative work is based on political decisions, intuition and emotive responses to high profile deaths." It was funded by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology for two years as an innovation project and a collaboration between Unisa's Institute for Social and Health Sciences, the MRC and CSIR.

Seedat says the data is vital for effective government interventions to prevent and reduce crime. He says ordinary South Africans need to "teach conflict resolution and non-violent decision making in the home and schools; parent-child relationships need to be strengthened." And he says the dictum of spare the rod spoil the child, is out. "And, reduce access to firearms as they are the leading cause of death."

He says government needs to introduce harsher gun control legislation, as well as more stringent steps to control alcohol abuse, and "most importantly stimulate economic equity and macro-level development. Countries with smaller economic differentials in their population have very low rates of violence and homicide. We need jobs, equal economic opportunity, a decrease in the earning differentials between men and women and race groups, infrastructural development, better preventative policing, conflict reducing skills in the home and schools, home visitation for those at risk of violence, and an immediate change in physical environments that lend themselves to violence."

Dada says that firearms are preferred as a killing tool now because blood does not splash over the perpetrator, "and it's less personal. Stabbings are mostly seen at Christmas or New Year when people tend to get drunk and stab friends or relatives."

He said too that there was a steady but noticeable rise in suicide, especially among young black people, but it was impossible to know if this was attributable to HIV or other causes.

Dada said the "criminal justice system is failing. Very often we can't get police to collect evidence at the mortuary or to come and talk to us. The Gale Street mortuary in Durban, as an example, is running at a quarter of its staff complement, staff are often off sick, and so there are delays in post mortems.

"In the rural areas many doctors don't know the difference between unnatural and natural causes of death, up to 50% of deaths in some rural areas are not reported. Or doctors will fraudulently conspire with a family, who for example, may not want an autopsy for supposed religious reasons and will list "natural" as the cause of death in a homicide.

"And then government is scrapping district surgeons which means the untrained doctors who now give evidence in courts are cannon fodder for defence attorneys and so cases are lost."

Professor Dada said police will, "in some cases say there is no van to pick up a body of a person killed in a homicide, so there is no post mortem, no criminal investigation ... the system of justice fails the people who need it the most - the poor." ends