The civil rights group Action Society today highlighted in its Decade of Decline campaign the shocking reality that South Africa’s murder rate has spiralled out of control over the past ten years – making our country more dangerous than the global threat of terrorism.
According to the latest official crime statistics, 26 232 people were murdered in South Africa in 2024. By contrast, the Global Terrorism Index 2025 reports that 7 555 people were killed in terrorist attacks across the entire world in 2023. This means South Africa’s murder toll is nearly four times higher than all terrorism-related deaths worldwide.
“The South African government is quick to condemn violence elsewhere in the world, but refuses to confront the carnage within its own borders,” said Action Society spokesperson Juanita du Preez. “Every year, tens of thousands of South Africans are murdered yet our leaders fail to act. If these killings were the result of terrorism, the world would call it a crisis. But because it is government negligence, it goes ignored.”
The Decade of Decline campaign highlights that in just ten years, the number of murders in South Africa has risen from 16 213 in 2012/13 to 27 272 in 2022/23, claiming the lives of more than 250 000 South Africans in the last decade alone.
Action Society urges government to treat violent crime as a national emergency, deploy specialised policing units, devolve policing powers to capable municipalities, and hold leadership accountable to address the crime epidemic devastating South Africa.
“South Africans are living through a bloodbath that would be unthinkable anywhere else,” Du Preez added. “This government has blood on its hands, and our message is simple: stop ignoring the slaughter of your own people.”
Action Society urges all South Africans to stand together and demand change by signing its Decade of Decline petition here.
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