I have been to South Africa a number of times, both on vacation and with work. It is a wonderful, beautiful country populated by some of the friendliest people I have ever met.
It is also the most crime ridden place I have ever been and the poverty has to be seen to be believed. It was after seeing the shanty towns in Johannesburg that I realized Louisiana wasn't Third-World after all. By African standards, its doing OK. But those sure as heck aren't high standards.
The crime statistics referred to above simply point out the presence of a police force that collects such statistics and a population not scared to report them.