It was an astonishing claim, and one that has stirred some vigorous debate, in the UK and in South Africa.
The statistics published by the Daily Mail indicated that in the past decade there have been 1,158,957 violent crimes committed in the United Kingdom, compared to 732,121 in South Africa over the same period. In the UK, there were 2,034 offences per 100,000 people, compared to South Africa with a rate of 1,609 per 100,000 people.
The article says that the number of recorded violent attacks in the UK 'soared by 77 per cent' in the decade following Labour's election to power in 1997. (According to the official South African police statistics, violent or contact crime in South Africa has decreased by 24% over the past 5 years.)
Of course, as usual, the old adage of 'lies, damned lies and statistics' hold true. Statistics rarely, if ever, tell the full story and can be twisted to suit any bias, agenda or argument. In this case, the statistics for the Daily Mail article were compiled by the Conservative Party from reports released by the European Commission and United Nations, and are being used as a political tool against the incumbent Labour government. The potential for political bias in how the statistics have been presented by the Conservatives, in a newspaper favouring the Tories, is therefore immense!
In addition, comparing countries based solely on crime statistics is misleading as it fails to take account of issues such as the accuracy of the statistics and how violent crime is defined, recorded and reported.
For example, the Daily Mail says that in Britain, an affray - the fighting of two or more persons in a public place - is considered a violent crime, and in South Africa, violent crime consists of murder, attempted murder, rape, assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, common assault, indecent assault, aggravated robbery and other robbery. In 2007, there were twenty times more murders in South Africa than in the United Kingdom.
The flawed and biased Daily Mail article provides no comfort to the victims of crime in South Africa nor to the South Africans that live in fear. It is not good news that violent crime is on the rise in the United Kingdom or anywhere else and it doesn't make South Africa's high levels of violent crime any more acceptable.
But what it does is offer some perspective. South Africa doesn't have a monopoly on violent crime in the world. Our crime rate is comparable with other developing nations (such as Brazil and Russia) and even, according to the Tories, with developed European countries such as the UK, Austria, Sweden and Belgium, yet we are perceived to be 'one of the world's most dangerous countries'.
Why do we have such a reputation, when a country like Brazil, with similar socio-economic challenges and high crime rates, is perceived so differently? Brazil is seen as the country of samba, supermodels and the Seleção (the name given to their national soccer team), and not as a country of crime and violence.
In an article by Fiona Forde in the Cape Argus this week, Paulo Sotero, the director of the Brazil Institute at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson centre, credits the positive perception of Brazil to 'steady progress (since the end of military rule in 1985) doused with a realistic outlook on life and the feeling that while much has been achieved, much more needs to be done'.
In addition, Sotero says that Brazilians understand that 'democracy is still being built on a daily basis. And that not only helps our reputation, but our own sense of self as a nation'.
"Brazilians have rarely been short on optimism, though, and have defined their identity by a vision of what they are going to become as a nation," says Forde. "South Africans, on the other hand, continue to define themselves by their past."
As branding specialist Thebe Ikafaleng says, "If we don't manage our own brand, then the world will begin to do it for us, which is what is happening. Either you take control of the perception, or the perception will begin to define you. Now we've allowed the image that we are a land of criminals to fester."
Perception is everything, regardless of the reality. Yes, we have violent crime, but so does Brazil, the UK, Austria, and Sweden. Do we deserve to be considered 'one of the world's most dangerous countries'? Perhaps, but like statistics, it doesn't tell the full story.
We need to take a leaf out of the Brazilian's book, to take a longer view on the country and to hold onto the vision of what we can become. We need to better manage our national brand, not by ignoring our shortcomings and problems but by also celebrating and communicating our achievements.
We are a dangerous country that is getting safer. That is the message we should be communicating. In a world that appears to be getting more dangerous, that is no mean feat.
By Ian Macdonald
Share it!
Steuart has done some 500 talks on South Africa's progress since 1994 and SA's prospects for the future' 
