The statistic put down on paper are grim reading, showing that South Africa is one of the most violent places on Earth. Over 2022, 27,066 murders were recorded in the calendar year, averaging 74 people every day, and almost all of these murders were ghoulish, not only involving guns, but melee weapons such as knives, machetes, clubs and even rocks. The murders arise from home invasions, and even arguments on the street. Women are especially targeted, being three times more likely to be murdered than men, and murder often follows rape. “It is estimated that over 40% of South African women will be raped in their lifetime and that only 1 in 9 rapes are reported. It is also estimated that 14% of perpetrators of rape are convicted in South Africa.” There are around 115 rapes a day.
This is a land where social collapse has occurred, but there is still a shell of an economy to keep things ticking over; it resembles the land depicted in zombie fiction, only more dangerous for people of all races. No-one, or no woman, is safe.