Fear in progress? Correlates of feeling (un)safe in an urban population in Gauteng, South Africa

Historically, most people have lived in fear in South Africa. Fear of the state, other social groups and crime characterised the pre-1994 South African landscape. Twenty-five years into democracy, oppressive government policies with legislated violence have been eradicated, and crime rates have halved compared to the 1990–1994 period. However, many people continue to live in fear. This study investigated the correlates of feeling (un)safe, focusing on the Gauteng province of South Africa. Feeling (un)safe was operationalised as a fear index constructed from four items (feeling safe at home, in the street during the day, during the night, and satisfaction with government-provided security services using principal component analysis (PCA). The study employed descriptive and multivariable random-effects linear regression techniques to analyse data from 15,502 respondents interviewed in Quality of Life (QoL) Survey 6 (2020/21). The results showed that living in a low-income neighbourhood, being female, having no education, being in a nonmarital relationship, being single, and living in an area with at least one defined major socioeconomic problem were associated with a significant increase in the fear index. The study concludes that addressing the main sources of fear is essential to achieving feelings of safety in Gauteng and South Africa at large.