DURBAN, An official of Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) has told the Moerane Commission investigating political violence in KwaZulu-Natal Province that the province does not have the highest murder rate in the country, as is commonly perceived.

The provincial head of the national statistical service, Helen North, submitted figures which show that KZN is actually in third place in the murder stakes , behind both Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces.

She said Wednesday that it is interesting to look at the murder rate per province. You take the total murders per province and divide it by the number of people living there so that we get an idea (of the number of murders) per 100,000 people, that is the rate of murder and interestingly, you see the darker provinces at the bottom — Western Cape and Eastern Cape — have extreme high murder rates,” she said.

Eastern Cape is the highest at 55 (per 100,000 population) and Western Cape is at 51. KwaZulu-Natal is just above national average of 34, we are sitting at 36.6.” — NNN-SABC

Source: NAM News Network