Crime in South Africa

The newspapers this week ran another article on how you will be murdered or raped as soon as you stop at a red light in SA. I can only speak of my recent 2 and a bit weeks holiday in SA, but we felt no threat whatsover during our stay and this was whilst driving around in an open top AC Cobra. Is this just something to fill a newspaper page or has the crime got worse? During our stay (February 2007) all we heard about on the news was how many people had been stabbed in London. The South African people we met (black/coloured/white) were nothing but courteous and had smiles to light up the day.

I second that Paul we have been twice to SA and found every one fantastic it has problems but we dont have to look far to see the problems here in the UK

I have been a regular visitor to SA over the last 7 or 8 years and never encountered any problems. The same rules apply to SA as anywhere else - if you go looking for trouble, it WILL find you. If you are sensible and stick to the main tourist/business areas you should be fine. If you decide to go walkabout in Jo'burg CBD or the Cape Flats areas for example, something will happen to you!

The only time you need to be cautious is when driving - especially at night. Many roads (eg Jo'burg airport to Sandton) pass through some very dodgy neighbourhoods. If you stop at traffic lights (or robots as they call them), leave enough space in between you and the car in front so you can pull out and drive off if necessary.

But as said above, it is an amazing country with some fantastic people - enjoy! PM me if you want any tips on where to visit/stay/eat etc.

Regards

Ian

I would totally disagree; crime happens the whole time in SA in a big way and these warnings are not for nothing. However, crime hasn't worsened in my opinion, but nor has it got significantly better than, say, 2000.

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