Residents, ratepayers and businesspeople in Mthatha have been saying it for years, and in 2023, they even wrote a scathing letter to police minister Bheki Cele complaining about their town’s soaring crime rate. This week, however, King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality mayor Nyaniso Nelani, who has previously promised to run criminals out of Mthatha, has admitted that the town remains an unsafe place marred by murders, extortion, hijacked buildings and general lawlessness.