Voter frustration over the government's inability to curb rising crime rates is one of the reasons the ruling African National Congress is expected to lose its majority in a May 29 election, after 30 years in power.

In the South African township where Luke Fleurs grew up, some friends joined gangs before they reached high school age, but Fleurs found another path: he was so brilliant at soccer that he rose to be a professional player at South Africa's top club.

Fleurs' success story ended abruptly last month when he was killed at a Johannesburg petrol station by someone stealing his car.

The 24-year-old's murder not only sparked public grief due to his profile as a Kaizer Chiefs defender but also highlighted South Africa's crime problem. South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with an average of 75 a day.

Voter frustration over the government's inability to curb rising crime rates is one of the reasons the ruling African National Congress is expected to lose its majority in a May 29 election, after 30 years in power.

Crime was part of the backdrop of Fleurs' upbringing in Mitchell's Plain, a suburb of Cape Town where the apartheid-era government relocated mixed-race families.

"We gave our blessing for him to move to Johannesburg to escape the violence and gangs back home, only (for him) to meet his demise at the peak of his promising football career," his father Theo Fleurs told said in an interview.

He said Luke was a sociable child, whose mother earned the nickname "Magic Mom" for feeding all the friends he brought home for dinner.

"It was in these groups of friends that many lost their path and went to join local gangs as early as 12 years old," said Theo Fleurs, a high school janitor and soccer coach, adding that many local boys idolised the gangster lifestyle.