ISS safety and crime data guides local government planning
ISS provides all South Africa's municipalities with accessible data to make safety a cornerstone of local government planning.
Published on 19 March 2026 in
Impact
ISS crime data and analysis are making a vital contribution to the National Strategic Hub (NSH) created by South Africa’s Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
‘The ISS contributes to our data-driven approach to local government,’ says NSH National Chief Data Officer Dr Sandile Mbatha. ‘ISS crime data make the raw statistics more accessible and applicable, and have shaped how we look at this country.’
The NSH was approved by the cabinet in October 2023 and is designed to ensure that local realities inform planning decisions and budget allocations.
South African crime data is collected and published by the South African Police Service (SAPS) at police station level, but does not align with municipal boundaries. The ISS Crime Hub organises the statistics and provides them quarterly to COGTA’s hub.
‘SAPS data is raw data. We add value and turn it into intelligence,’ says Lizette Lancaster, Manager of the ISS Crime Hub and Acting Head of the ISS Justice and Violence Prevention team.
‘The ISS’ ability to present the data makes it easier for us to use the crime statistics,’ says Mbatha. ‘ISS data quality allows us to extract insights that put safety and security at the centre of municipal planning.’
ISS crime data complements the hub’s State of Crime and Safety Dashboard, featuring in diagnostic profiles that provide district and municipal overviews with key indicators, demographics and performance metrics. The data is used in the situation analysis of municipal and district development plans, the service delivery simulator and ward profiles.
‘ISS crime data make the raw statistics more accessible and applicable, and have shaped how we look at this country’
ISS data also inform the hub’s State of Spatial Transformation Analysis, which untangles how South Africa’s economy functions as an integrated system. Crime and safety data are combined with evidence on population distribution, employment, education, land values, infrastructure and investment activity.
The hub ensures that Integrated Development Plans are based on live information, and that all of local government has access to data-driven insights that inform better decisions about everything from investment to service delivery. Crime data is now included in municipal profiles, enabling local authorities to incorporate safety into service delivery planning.
‘Safety and security are a critical layer of data,’ says Mbatha. ‘If you create safer conditions locally, you enable human development and thriving communities.
‘ISS enabled us to make crime stats a visible cornerstone of local government planning. There are no more excuses to not account for safety and security in planning.’
Mbatha says that ‘ISS crime analysts are creative and outward-looking in their thinking, have an incredible commitment to the bigger picture, and recognise that they can have more impact by co-producing knowledge and making it available for planning.’
The ISS has done metro-level crime stats analysis since 2020, in partnership with the South African Cities Network. ‘Crime is a risk to account for in any development planning,’ says Lancaster. ‘We have enabled all municipalities to have crime data at their fingertips.’
The ISS Crime Hub hosts the biggest single longitudinal database of crime stats in South Africa, underpinned by maps and interactive tools, all geo-referenced using GIS technology.
For more information, contact:
Lizette Lancaster, ISS: [email protected]
