By Jeff and Susan Hall, New Braunfels Texas, USA
Cape Town - My wife and and I have long dreamed of travelling to South Africa and began planning our visit nearly a year ago.
We started with a fantastic week long safari at the Kruger National Park and from there things quickly went downhill.
On our drive back to Johannesburg, fuel was siphoned High crime rate in SA deters tourists from our rental car while we stopped for coffee in Haenertsburg.
Our troubles continued when we arrived in Cape Town. About 15 minutes after leaving the airport and driving on the N2 near Nyanga, a man standing on the side of the road maliciously hurled a large rock at our car.
Luckily it didn’t kill us, but it did break the side-view mirror. We filed a police report immediately after arriving in Stellenbosch.
The police were friendly, but shrugged and noted this stretch of the N2 was a high crime zone. The next day, we parked in a very upscale Stellenbosch neighbourhood and walked into town.
During the hour we were gone, the car window was smashed and my bag was stolen.
The neighbours and a private security firm actually saw it happen, but couldn’t help.
We filed another police report in Stellenbosch where they apparently don’t use any computers and I was asked to photograph the documents because their copiers did not work.
This experience has clearly affected our trip and we are no longer confident that tourists are safe in this country. Shamefully, the criminals and hooligans seem to be in complete control. Totsiens doesn’t apply.
Cape Times
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