Murder is SA's biggest killer

Violence and transport- related deaths are still the major causes of non-natural deaths in the country, says a report on the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System.

Launching the 2007 Medical Research Council and Unisa report yesterday, project leader Ashley van Niekerk said that of the 33,513 fatal injuries registered at 39 mortuaries in seven provinces, violence accounted for 36 per cent and transport- related deaths 32%.

Violence-related deaths appeared to have decreased while those related to transport were considered problematic, said Van Niekerk.

“What is becoming distinctly problematic as well is the steady increase of traffic fatalities,” he added.

Some of this could be understood by the vast number of cars on the road and infrastructure that struggled to cope with the load.

“This is likely to escalate to such an extent that by 2010 we‘re going to have really bad problems.”

Van Niekerk said men, especially those aged between 24 and 44, “by far” made up the greatest proportion of victims of violence and to a lesser extent traffic accidents.

The ratio of male to female for violence-related deaths was seven to one.

The City of Cape Town recorded the highest number of homicides while the major cause of death in Johannesburg was homicide and traffic.

From the mortuary data, Pretoria appeared to be the safest metropolis of the four surveyed.

However, it recorded the highest incidents of suicide.

“By far the city that has shown the most promise with respect to coming to terms with its problem is Pretoria,” said Van Niekerk.

“The City of Cape Town is doing a lot, but clearly more needs to be done,” he said.

Of the other non-natural deaths recorded by the mortuary survey, unintentional deaths accounted for 13% and suicide for 10%, while 9% were undetermined.

The majority of deaths occurred among African and Coloured men, with the leading manner of death being fatal injuries from sharp objects.

Just about two in five of all violence-related deaths were inflicted by sharp objects and a further third by firearms. Most of the deaths occurred in and around the home.

Among women, pedestrian injuries were the highest cause of death recorded.

Pedestrian deaths also accounted for the largest number of transport-related fatalities.

Van Niekerk said the three greatest causes of death for children under the age of 14 were pedestrian fatalities, drowning and burning.

For very young children – aged from birth to four – burns from fire-related incidents were the major cause of death.

Pedestrian fatalities were the highest recorded in the five to 14 age group, followed by drowning.

“(Drowning) is most likely to become very prominent now in the summer months,” said Van Niekerk.

He said that while there had been a number of “alarm bells” raised over children being fatal victims of violence, this was still “fairly small”.

“After the age of 14, it becomes bigger. Children (under the age of 14) are more likely to die as a result of injury sustained due to what is called accidents or unintentional circumstances.”