SOUTH Africa is “close to a war zone” with 57 people being murdered every day, the police minister has revealed.

The country’s already high murder rate shot up by around seven per cent this year and by 30 per cent over the past six.

Many murders were linked to gang violence in Western Cape Province.

The province’s capital is Cape Town which is also South Africa’s top tourist destination.

Cops in the Rainbow Nation released crime statistics yesterday showing 20,336 people were murdered between April 2017 and March, compared to 19,016 in the previous year.

The police minister, Bheki Cele, says the high murder rate "borders close to the war zone while there is peace and there is no war".

Gang warfare has seen the rate of slayings increase by the biggest margin since the end of apartheid this year.

Most of the murders took place in a small number of "no go" areas that police have surrendered to gangs, The Times reports.

This has prompted Cele to admit his department had "dropped the ball" in its efforts to combat crime.

Incidents of rape and attempted murder also rose, with the minister adding that a corrupt government and police service "was a big problem".

The parliamentary committee on policing called for a greater concentration of resources in crime hotspots.

Mr Cele said a number of specialised units which had not been properly managed in previous years would now be boosted to deal with crimes dealing with women, children and sexual violence.

Mmusi Maimane, the opposition Democratic Alliance leader, said: "This is indeed war-zone levels.

"Our police need better training, equipment and resources. We need a better criminal justice system so that murderers are locked up and keys thrown away."

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world.