Joburg's safety rating plunges

Johannesburg has scored 50 in a ranking of 60 cities around the world for digital, health, infrastructure and personal security.

And the situation is worsening - the city has slid nine places since 2015.

The Safe Cities Index 2017, compiled by the intelligence unit of the UK's The Economist magazine, notes: "While the human toll of crime, violence and vandalism is heavy, it is worth noting that the economic toll is significant too.

"Moreover, the two factors are part of a negative feedback loop [because] damage and lost revenue leave cities with even fewer resources with which to tackle violence and crime."

High levels of urban crime also lead to increases in the cost of living for residents because crime pushes up the prices of home insurance, the unit states.

Homeowners also feel the need to install security lights, cameras and CCTV.

"While such costs affect individual urban residents, ultimately they disadvantage entire cities, some of which may not be able to attract skilled workers and as a result may lower their ability to secure investment from businesses.

"This is a challenge facing Johannesburg, which ranks 54th in the personal security category of the index."

The index notes that, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for 2015-2016, theft and other crime are major deterrents to doing business in Johannesburg.

In the report, these two issues ranked sixth among the 16 most problematic factors for doing business in South Africa. In Switzerland and Singapore, they ranked second to last.

Metros must do more to deal with crime, the Safe Cities Index states.

"Beyond their responsibility to urban residents, municipal authorities have other incentives to combat urban crime and violence - the need for healthy tax revenue streams and the pressure to maintain the competitiveness of the city."

Nathalie Alvarado, citizen security lead specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank, was quoted in the Global Competitiveness Report as stating that the economic cost of crime was not only expenditure on police forces and judicial systems, but the loss of revenues that would have been generated by working-age people who were murdered or jailed and cannot contribute to the economy, and the money spent by businesses on security.

Most damaging, Alvarado said, is the effect of crime on young people.

"They are the future of these countries so for us crime and violence are more than security concerns - they are development challenges."