People in SA 'don't feel safe'

REPORT: TREND MORE PRONOUNCED AMONG FEMALES’

- Brendan Seery

Gallup's research notes a decline in confidence in law and order.

South Africa's people believe the country is one of the most unsafe in the world, with just 30% say they feel safe walking in the streets at night.

There is only one country in the world whose people feel more unsafe Ecuador, where just 27% of citizens don't feel safe walking at night.

That's according to the latest annual update on global safety done by the Gallup polling group and covering 2023.

On par with South Africa in terms of people feeling unsafe at night is Liberia, poverty-stricken and wracked by conflict over the past 20 years, where only 30% of people feel safe in the streets at night. Yet the rest of the world including countries in conflict zones - appears a lot safer to the inhabitants of its countries.

Gallup, whose report was released this week, said that in 2023, 70% of adults worldwide said they feel safe walking alone at night where they live, which is considerably higher than it was a decade ago and at most, points in Gallup's nearly 20-year trend.