South Africa’s abysmal personal safety ranking
South Africa retained its ranking in the 2013 edition of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which provides an annual assessment of governance in every African country.
South Africa ranks 5th out of 52 countries with a score of 71.3 (out of 100), higher than the African average of 51.6.
Established in 2007, the IIAG claims to be the most comprehensive collection of quantitative data on governance in Africa.
South Africa’s highest ranking of third comes in the category of Participation & Human Rights, which measures the protection and promotion of human rights, civil and political participation, and gender issues. Its scores 73.1, well above the continental average of 48.4, and only below Cape Verde and Mauritius.
It also scores well in Sustainable Economic Opportunity (5th), behind only Mauritius, Botswana, Seychelles, and Tunisia. Here SA scores 65.1 against a continental average of 47 points.
The sub sectors measuring Sustainable Economic Opportunity include: Public Management; Business Environment; Infrastructure; and Rural Sector.
South Africa is one of eight countries to have remained consistently in the IIAG’s top ten since 2000—along with Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles and Tunisia.
Top 10
| # | Country | Score |
| 1 | Mauritius | 82.9 |
| 2 | Botswana | 77.6 |
| 3 | Cape Verde | 76.7 |
| 4 | Seychelles | 75.0 |
| 5 | South Africa | 71.3 |
| 6 | Namibia | 69.5 |
| 7 | Ghana | 66.8 |
| 8 | Tunisia | 66.0 |
| 9 | Lesotho | 61.9 |
| 10 | Senegal | 61.0 |
The country’s worst score comes in the form of Personal Safety where it ranks 41st, ahead only of the likes of Burundi, Libya, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, CAR, Congo DR, and Somalia.
South Africa shows a score of 30.6 points and is way below the average of 43.1, with countries like Mauritius (77.3), Botswana (74), and Seychelles (63.6) leading the way.
Personal Safety includes the following indicators:
- Domestic Political Persecution;
- Physical Integrity Rights;
- Political Terror;
- Social Unrest;
- Safety of the Person;
- Reliability of Police Service;
- Violent Crime;
- and Human Trafficking
“The findings highlight widespread improvements across the continent since the turn of the century, said Mo Ibrahim, founder and chair of the foundation.
“They show that 94% of people living in Africa now live in a country that has demonstrated overall governance improvement since 2000. Eighteen out of the 52 countries analysed saw their best ever performance in this year’s IIAG.
“But these figures, of course, also reveal the challenges of sustaining progress and underline that an equitable allocation of resources must be a priority for policy and decision makers,” he said.
South Africa’s index performance
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