Newsletter 13 - Mortality in the cities - 20 March 2009
Violence and accidents are the leading causes of non-natural deaths in the four largest cities. This is according to the Ninth Report of the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System. Cities studied in the report include the City of Cape Town, eThekwini, City of Johannesburg, and City of Tshwane. The report covers 39 mortuaries in seven provinces, and covers between 42% and 49% of all non-natural deaths.
City of Cape Town: Some 4 746 non-natural deaths were recorded in Cape Town, out of a total of 6 207 recorded deaths between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2007. Non-natural deaths accounted for 76% of all recorded deaths. The leading cause of non-natural death was violence, accounting for 46.8% of non-natural deaths. Violence accounted for almost 70% of non-natural deaths in the 15-24 age group.
eThekwini: A total of 5 399 deaths were recorded between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2007,of which 4 505, or 83%, were non-natural deaths. As in the case of Cape Town, the leading cause of death was violence, accounting for 44% of non-natural deaths. Violence accounted for 56.2% of non-natural deaths in the 15-24 age group.
City of Johannesburg: Non-natural deaths accounted for 4 644 deaths out of 5 410 deaths, or 86% of all recorded deaths.The leading cause of death was accident, accounting for 47.5% of non-natural deaths. Transport-related accidents accounted for 69.6% of accidental deaths.
City of Tshwane: There were a total of 3 141 deaths recorded in the area, of which 2 640, or 84%, were non-natural deaths. The leading cause of death in the area, as in the City of Johannesburg, was accidents; of which 74.8% were transport-related accidents.
Johannesburg had the highest number of suicide cases, with 535 deaths between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2007. This is a rate of 14.2 per 100 000 people, while the other three cities had rates below 12 per 100 000 people.
Cape Town had the highest number of deaths of the four cities, with 2 222 recorded deaths as a result of violence. Cape Town had a rate of 63.5 violence-related deaths per 100 000 people, followed by eThekwini with 55.9 violence-related deaths per 100 000 people.
The City of Tshwane had the lowest non-natural mortality rate overall, with 81.1 deaths per 100 000 people. Cape Town had the highest non-natural mortality rate with 144.9 non-natural deaths per 100 000 people, with violence accounting for 47% of non-natural deaths.
Click on the link below to view the above figures, and others, in excel format:
The municipal outreach project aims to provide extensive research into the eight major municipalities in the country. This will be done by means of publications, the project website, and workshops. A monthly publication called Fast Facts for Local Government (F3LG), is sent to local councillors, officials, and development organisations in the eight municipalities covered by the project. A weekly newsletter is posted on the project website on Fridays, and e-mailed to project beneficiaries. The annual South Africa Survey, published by the South African Institute of Race Relations, will be posted to municipalities and extracts posted on the project website.
Workshops will take place during the course of the project in each of the eight municipalities. The first will be the Major Urban Poverty Challenges Identification (MUPCI) workshops which will take place during 2009, and will be designed for elected councillors and officials to identify what they see as the major poverty challenges facing their constituents. The Urban Poverty Intervention (UPI) workshops will take place during 2010, and will explore policy interventions appropriate to the challenges identified in the MUPCI workshops. The Anti Poverty Intervention Implementation Proposals (APIIP) workshops will take place during 2011, and will formally propose the policy interventions identified in the first two years.
Municipal councillors and officials, as well as development organisations working within these municipalities, are encouraged to participate in this pioneering initiative to combat poverty in South Africa's major urban districts.
