South Africa crime can be helped by economics

South Africa is notorious for its high crime rate, a reflection of its economic inequality and racial tension.

However, there is an economic dimension to solving the problem, a prominent business voice in the country told CNBC on Friday.

“We can’t deal with crime as an isolated incident, we need to look at the totality,” Kingsley Makhubela, chief executive of the nation’s marketing platform Brand South Africa, said.

Transforming society, empowering people and dealing with underlying poverty all must be considered in tackling South Africa’s crime, he added.

“We can’t just look at it as an isolated social phenomena that you find in the country.”

Only 30 percent of South Africans feel safe walking at night, according to a report by Statistics South Africa that measured the period from April 2016 to March 2017. This trend continues to decline.

Some 7.2 percent of South African households were victims of crime in the year recorded, with burglary accounting for the highest proportion of this, at 53 percent. Only 51 percent of victims reported the crime to the police.