South Africans are in a suburban arms race

Visit North West University press office South Africans are no longer just living in suburbs. They are living in defended zones. High walls, cameras and private security may protect some South Africans, but they are not solving crime – they are displacing it onto more vulnerable communities. Crime in South Africa is no longer treated as temporary. Fear has become embedded into daily life, reshaping how people move, socialise and even perceive strangers. South Africa’s “suburban arms race” is turning cities into fragmented islands of protection, where access, exclusion and fear increasingly define urban life. Violent crime in South Africa is rampant, with the country frequently ranked as one of the most dangerous in the world, as well as among the most unsafe in Africa. Citizens are afraid, and justifiably so, adapting to crime as though it is no longer temporary but permanent. This fear has, for decades, quietly been redesigning suburban South Africa. Across the country, cities are being turned into defended zones as defensive living becomes the norm. Spiked palisade walls, mounted cameras and roaming private security firms are not just a common sight in the country’s suburbs, they are increasingly defining them. According to Prof Gideon van Riet from the North-West University’s (NWU) School for Government Studies, this fear of crime is not irrational, but barricaded homes are not addressing the issue. They are displacing it. “Fear of crime in South Africa is not irrational. Violent crime is a lived reality for many, shaping how people think, move and protect themselves. Fear is reasonable. South Africa has a high crime rate. Crime is often violent, both inside and outside the non-continuous laager,” he explains, referring to the fragmented social boundaries that separate those with access to commercial security infrastructures from those without. Yet, he argues that the way society interprets and responds to crime may be just as important as crime itself. “The narr