{"id":91568,"date":"2026-10-12T05:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=91568"},"modified":"2026-10-12T05:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T05:32:08","slug":"outlier-176-ward-councillors-reporting-crimes-choosing-cars-old-age-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/outlier-176-ward-councillors-reporting-crimes-choosing-cars-old-age-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlier #176: Ward councillors, reporting crimes, choosing cars, old-age grants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are 42 candidates standing for election in my ward in next month\u2019s local government elections. 31 of them are standing in other wards and five are standing in more than 100 wards. And this is happening across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason parties are running candidates in as many wards as possible comes down to the council seat calculations. The winners of each ward get one seat on the municipality\u2019s council, but the ward councillor seats make up only half of the total seats on offer. The other seats are allocated to the parties that win the most aggregate votes according a complicated calculation. So winning a handful of votes in each of 100 wards puts a party in with a shot at getting a council seat, even if they don\u2019t win any actual wards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technically this is not against the rules even if it does raise questions about who is actually going to represent your interests. To help you decide we built an app<\/a> together with The South Africa Brief<\/a> so you can see who is standing in your ward and who is also standing in other wards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83d\udc6e\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2640\ufe0f Case numbers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are understandably crime obsessed in South Africa, but nearly half of all crimes still go unreported. According to Statistics SA\u2019s Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey,<\/em> just 51.6% of crimes are reported by the victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Theft of motor vehicles is the crime reported most often, around 70% of the time. Most likely this is because owners need a case number for insurance purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assaults are reported by 57% of victims while sexual offences are reported 67% of the time. Less violent crimes such as property damage and robbery are reported in fewer than 50% of cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most common reason for not reporting, according to the survey, is a belief that the police could not, or would not, do anything. Self-reliance is the second biggest reason for non-reporting. People believe they can simply replace stolen items or fix the damage themselves without needing to get the police involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83d\ude99 Car shopping<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Price is the biggest factor when South Africans choose a car. The Cars.co.za Motor Industry Report 2026<\/em> asked shoppers on its site to pick the three factors that mattered most to them. 70.8% chose price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuel efficiency came second, at 52.5%. Together, the two show buyers thinking about money twice: once at the dealership and again at the pump. The cost of running a car weighs almost as heavily as the cost of buying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because each respondent chose three factors, the shares add up to more than 100%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First-time car buyers, however, have different priorities when selecting a car than seasoned vehicle owners. Price is stil the primary consideration for both first-time and seasoned car buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences between them though appear further down the list. First-time buyers are more likely to choose on looks. 12% picked design, compared with 8.9% of multi-car owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experienced owners focus on the cost and practicalities of living with a car. Fuel efficiency made 57.6% of their lists, against 49.3% for first-time buyers. Safety ratings rose from 18% to 25.8%. Practicality tripled, from 4% to 12.4%, and luxury features rose from 2.7% to 9.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pattern suggests a first car is often bought on how it looks, and later cars on how they run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This survey reflects people browsing Cars.co.za rather than all car buyers, but the message for dealers is clear: affordability sells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83d\udc5c Social support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Nearly three in four older South Africans receive an old age grant. Researchers say the grant has helped reduce poverty among older people, but it is being stretched by rising living costs and growing care needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently valued at around R2,400 a month, the grant is being used not only to support older people, but also to feed extended families and cover transport, healthcare and other household expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 20 years, since the establishment of SASSA, the number of beneficiaries of the grant has increased substantially. In 2006, 2.2-million, or 61% of the over-60 population at the time, received the grant. Today, 4.2-million, about 73% of the over-60 population, receive it (using population estimates from the Thembisa model).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of grant recipients has grown faster than the older population, partly because, until 2010, men only became eligible for the grant at 65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\ude4f Produced in partnership with<\/em> GroundUp News<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em> Read the full story<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1387,1380],"tags":[909,73,154,253],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-91568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-outlier","category-this-week-in-charts","tag-cars","tag-crime","tag-elections","tag-grants"],"acf":{"post_style":"bc","show_on_front":"Yes","link_through":"Yes","big_number":"","big_number_caption":"","big_number_link":"","big_number_background":"","big_number_text_colour":"#000000","big_number_icon":false,"big_number_wide":"yes","featured_chart":false,"flourish_chart_id":"","flourish_sub_title":"","flourish_chart_width":"medium","is_newsletter_post":"No","chart_url":"","background_colour":"#0089AA","text_colour":"#FFFFFF"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91574,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91568\/revisions\/91574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91568"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=91568"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=91568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}