South Africa

Today I talked to a coworker from South Africa. He recently moved to Washington following a long stint in Toronto and has not lived in South Africa since the mid-90s. When I asked if he would ever go back permanently he said no, citing the sky-high crime rate. He said that crime is so bad that the government has stopped keeping many statistics and fudges the ones it does publish. Crime is not something he reads about only in the newspapers, however, he said that it is so rampant that it has impacted people he knows. One example was neighbors of his sister-in-law, who have twice had their house broken into by gangs of 5 or so men armed with AK-47s in recent months.

He added that these gangs actually prefer the homeowners to be around when they invade, so that if they encounter a safe that they can threaten the homeowners for the combination. Amazingly, he said that his sister-in-law's neighbors are actually having a safe installed in their house where they intend to place some money and valuables. They are doing this not for protection in the traditional sense, but because they are afraid that if there is another home invasion and they tell the robbers that they do not possess a safe that it will only enrage them and place their lives in danger. If the robbers are able to make off with some valuables, the logic goes, they are less likely to kill the residents.