Ricky Croock, Vumacam. Photo: Karolina Komendera

It’s well known that South Africa is an extremely violent country, but the slow drip of murders has now swelled to a torrent, with an average of 520 people killed every week in 2022. As the Institute for Security Studies points out, the country’s murder rate was at 44.7 per 100 000 people in 2022, a rate last seen two decades ago, and only Jamaica had a higher per capita murder rate than South Africa.

It’s also estimated that the police only solve about 15% of murder cases, which, as Andrew Faull, an Institute for Security Studies senior researcher, and David Bruce, independent researcher and ISS consultant, say suggests ‘entrenched dysfunction’.