South Africa murder rate falls sharply

Annual figure drops by 8.6% and assaults, robberies and car hijackings also down

Murders in South Africa have dropped to their lowest level since the end of apartheid, police figures show.

The police minister, Nathi Mthethwa, said the annual murder rate fell by 8.6% to dip below 17,000 for the first time since nationwide records began in 1995-96, when the total was almost 27,000.

A statistic of 50 murders a day in South Africa was widely quoted in the build-up to this year's football World Cup. That average has declined to 46 per day but is still one of the highest in the world.

Mthethwa said attempted murder, sexual offences, assault, robberies and car hijackings also dropped significantly.

"Indeed the tide is turning against crime and criminals as we push back the frontiers of evil," he said.

The number of reported sexual offences dropped by 4.4%, to an average of 187 a day.

Home burglaries and property theft increased as the economy had its first recession in 17 years.

Mthethwa credited better and more visible policing for the downward trend and said 46 of South Africa's 50 most wanted criminals had been arrested.

South Africa hosted hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors to the World Cup in June and July, with few serious incidents. That period was not included in the statistics, which covered April 2009 to the end of March this year.

The high crime rate has been a drag on foreign investment in Africa's biggest economy, making it more difficult to retain high-level talent and recruit from abroad, and increasing security and insurance costs for businesses.