SA finance chief downplays nation’s crime scourge

South Africa’s finance minister urged investors not to be deterred by what he termed “isolated” incidents of criminality, and assured them that improving safety and security is one of the government’s top priorities.

“I would argue that people must invest in South Africa,” Enoch Godongwana said in an online panel discussion on Sunday. “We cannot let an isolated incident, which is not a feature of our society, be a reason for lack of investment.”

Godongwana’s comment came three days after military veterans held two ministers and a deputy minister hostage and three months after an outbreak of civil unrest that left 354 people dead and saw thousands of business looted and destroyed.

Latest police statistics show there were 5,760 murders in South Africa in the three months through June, an average of 62 a day.