76% of South Africans have been victims of crime
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More than 76% of South Africans have been victims of crime, including kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, robbery and housebreaking.
This is the finding of the State of Security Report by the Automobile Association (AA).
According to the AA, the authors reviewed government statistics and also conducted a wide-ranging survey with more than 1,100 respondents.
The report found that South Africans rated their sense of safety less than 50%.
South Africans also feel less safe in outdoor public spaces like parks than indoor public spaces like malls.
“As a result of the perceived lack of security, many South Africans change their behaviour, or avoid certain areas or situations, and increasingly add security features to their homes,” the report found.
Only about 43.5% of people in SA feel safe in their own homes, with just over 15% stating that they feel “completely safe” in their homes.
The report comes two months after AA launched its new mobile security app known as AA Armed Response. AA CEO Willem Groenewald said being able to activate immediate armed security on a smartphone, was a “powerful tool”.