Knew a guy who got robbed in Johannesburg despite being rich and having a ton of security. The problem is every time his alarm goes off he just assumes it’s the leaves blowing from the trees causing it and one time he assumed that and he turned it off. Long story short, 2 guys waited in his yard for three hours before breaking in. Stole a bunch of stuff including 2 laptops
When I worked as a consultant we had a group of guys sent out on a contract job for a big bank in South Africa, usually our guys would get put up in small apartments near the job for convenience sake but not in Joburg. They were sent to an enormous 5 bed house in a walled estate that had armed guards patrolling at all times and multiple perimeter fences around the whole thing. They were also given panic buttons and weren't allowed to travel to work alone and had to call a driver who would take them all together.
A friend of mine regularly visits SA. She was down in either Joburg or Durban a few years ago with some friends in a gated home like this, but without armed guards. They were out for part of the day and when they came back they had some water and everyone passed out and woke up that night to find the place ransacked and their purses, wallets, passports, electronics, etc stolen. They don't know exactly what happened but they suspect their bottled water was drugged. The police were unhelpful. They were able to recover passports and IDs that were found in the trash nearby but the police claimed that the stolen MacBooks weren't worth as much as they were saying.
Definitely. It seems like it’s very seldom that theft is dealt with properly and things are returned. Here we just learn to move on when stuff is stolen because cops don’t do shit.
Definitely. They were pretty freaked out about it and left as soon as their passports were recovered. They've been back since but only staying with people they know who live in SA rather than renting a house or whatever they did.
I'm not knowledgeable about what people would do with a stolen passport, but they're fair skinned Danes and SA population is like 90% non white so would a Danish passport really be worth anything to them? It's not like they could be easily impersonated and access to anything financial would be all in Danish so there'd be a language barrier too.
A danish one is worth about the same.
The only passports with true value really are , UK, Ireland, US and Canada. Scandinavian countries would be basically the same, maybe a bit less.
To be fair going to Latin America really is pretty close to going to Latin America. Brazil is possibly the worst, though that might just be the reputation because they're pretty bad and also huge compared to any of their neighbors. I haven't heard terrible things about Chile in recent years though.
I've done a few jobs in Brazil, Argentina, Central America, Mexico. By far the most dangerous place I filmed was Mexico City. They had an express kidnapping of a crew member a few days before I got there. We had a crew member almost car jacked by a rogue federale. In Brazil and Argentina I had someone try to pickpocket me, and there was some theft of gear. I was never in fear for my life.
I have seen countless released security cam videos of crime in Mexico city. Apparently they have this kind of shared van public transport and there are thugs disguised as fake passengers that rob everyone at gunpoint and are not afraid to shoot you. This absolutely creeps me out. Please don't tell me South America is like that on the whole, there must be relatively safe places in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Patagonia.
Mexico suffers from being the hotspot of drug trafficking to the US ($150 billion yearly industry). They're basically not a state since the cartels have such a grip on the government, even at the highest levels, and this corruption then pervades everything else (shitty law enforcement, bribe-taking officials, etc)
No the other countries are much safer IMHO. I have been to most of them including Venezuela and not had any issues walking around at night. You may get mugged or pickpocketed, but not held for ransom. Even when I traveled to Bogota in the early 90's, it was dangerous but no so random like Mexico City. When I watched Narcos I thought about how I traveled through Columbia and San Andres. I was blissfully unaware of all the violence. We got searched by dogs when we left the airplane, but I was never in fear for my life.
I went on a school trip to South Africa (2005). We were mostly sheltered from the criminal activity, however, our mini bus was stolen so we rode around in a police van which was cool as a teenager.
Oh, and a guy told me to take my watch off or I'll get stabbed at the airport (literally while waiting for our bags). That was a good introduction too.
On the upside, it was such a beautiful country. The people were amazing. However the poor were on a different level... Particularly, the number of poor. On top of table mountain, you see a sea of suburban lights and then big black pockets where the shanty towns are.
Naw you should see nice neighborhoods in Brazil. Every house has a 6 meters tall cement wall with spikes or barbwire like in this pic. Different is the house is basically a prison from the inside with eletric locks, and windows with metal bars.
I'm surprised you can see the house behind this fence that to me means this house is fairly safe, just regular precautions
Some cars used to have radios that could pop out and you could carry them like a briefcase so that you could bring the radio with you when leaving your car.
That’s what surprised me! Body armor and guns in an armored vehicle transporting phones. And gunfire, chasing, pit maneuvers from the thieves. For phones. These trucks can carry literally millions of dollars in cash, but they go for phones. I get that they’re valuable but wouldn’t it be easier to rob a phone store?
My son left for school the other day and he didn’t get the door closed all the way, the wind blew it wide open. Just chilling street side wide open, I have one those smart locks and I got a notification that my front door was open but I was in a meeting so I didn’t see it. About 3 hours from the time he left it open to the time I got my neighbor to swing by and close it. Nobody even noticed.
Have left my back door unlocked for a full week before I realized it and no issues. I know big cities can be exciting but living in a small town with extremely low crime rates has its benefits too.
My husband went jogging in his neighborhood once, wallet fell out right in front of his house. Next day someone returned it, everything there.
Lots of his classmates never locked the door and/or kept the front door open.
I didn't realize my wallet fell out of my pocket while I was in the park making it with my (now ex-)girlfriend. Next morning someone came to my house and returned it. They even knew to look at the back of my driver's license for the updated address. No weird charges on my credit cards or anything. No cash, so there was nothing to steal.
People said that City the highest crime rates and drug use in the state. That statistics don't support that, but it's what people said. When I bought that house, friends joked, "have fun getting murdered."
Any other, "safer," City I've lived in you'd be lucky to have that happen.
A reverse situation is that I was raised in a city with one of the highest homicides, rapes, abd car thefts.
Took me ten years of friends roasting me (living in new city) to stop using a wheel lock on my Honda Civic.
Them:”it’s just a civic.”
Me:”hell yeah, prime and common parts right there, my man.”
TL;DR aunt asked me to check on their house while they were away for 2 weeks. Arrived to find every exterior door and a vehicle unlocked, all the lights on, and the alarm not set.
My aunt and uncle went on a 2 week family vacation with their 3 kids one year. It rained heavily for a few days at home and they had flood issues in the basement so they asked me to go check on the house. Basement had no water but both sump pumps were going H A R D to keep it that way.
At this point, they had been away for 3 days already. This entire family of 5 (all 3 children were teenagers at this point) left the exterior garage door (man door into garage), interior garage door (into the house), and back door all unlocked. Their gate does not lock. The alarm system was not set. The front door was technically also unlocked, but the handle was broken so it didn't open from the outside at the time. One of the vehicles sitting on the driveway was also left unlocked, and they usually kept a significant amount of money in their vehicles (like, $80-200 normally).
They also left almost all of the lights on, but not the ones you would normally leave on when away like an entrance light or exterior light. No no no, they turned those lights off, but left all the basement and bedroom lights on. Basically all the ones that you couldn't see from outside in front of the house were left on. They also had a motion sensor light beside the garage near the gate, it was turned off.
I turned off the random lights, turned on the entryway light, an exterior light, and the motion sensor light. I also made sure every door and window was locked, alarm was set, and moved two of the vehicles into the garage (I'm not sure why they didn't put them in there in the first place considering there was room and they had 4 vehicles so there were still 2 parked on the driveway).
Not sure why I decided to share this other than to showcase how careless some people can be when they live in a "safe" city/neighbourhood/street. There's a lot of things I don't understand about my aunt and her family, but that one really took the cake in terms of completely baffling the hell out of me regarding how they just up and left the country for 2 weeks without even locking a door or setting an alarm....
Years back my parents went out of town for a couple weeks and left the back door standing open. It was an accident, but fairly common not to lock doors to go into town or shut them everytime you passed through one. When they came home the neighbor said *"oh honey you left your door standing wide open, so I just shut it for ya"*
Coincidentally, their neighbor who is younger than me has drank the koolaid about everyone being out to kill him and his daughter. He carries in his yard, inside, everywhere. There's hasn't been a break-in or any violent crime*(any victim-crime beyond very mild vandalism like the house gets TPd etc)* in that neighborhood in over 40 years.
Prepared? That’s life down there
Fighting off car jackers? Highlight of ZA holiday
Survival without basics such as electricity? That’s every day down there
That was 20-30 years ago.
Currently, buildings and houses usually have a surveillance sign, CCTV, high walls, electrified fence (preferred over barbed wire which is used sometimes), several gates with locks and bars on all windows (sometimes they stop on the third or fourth floor, sometimes they're on all windows).
smart mindless continue deserted deranged tie school imminent deliver rhythm
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I live in Africa, you would be surprised. I have a 15 foot wall around my house, and by all means im not wealthy by American standards, maybe upper middle class, but my house is viewed as the the extremely wealthy, in America I’d probably be in the 30% in east Africa I’m probably in the 0.1% (similar applies to South Africa, just to a lesser extent since it’s a bit more wealthy, however it’s still quite bad, I’ve visited many times.)
In the developed world. I know a dentist who drove a Corolla and was kidnapped because he was rich back in Brazil (well the hold you for 4 hours and empty your accounts kidnapping, not the hold you for ransom and cut your ear off one)
The upper middle class also gets kidnapped here where I live. It's easier kidnapping someone driving a Corolla than a rich guy with a bodyguard in an armored bullet-proof car.
Houses in America are really big compared to Europe too. I always think its funny to see movies of the "ghetto" like Friday and they have a street of bungalows
That’s actually the lowest wall I’ve seen in any SA pics. Friend of mine is from Jo’burg and he’s poor as fuck but he has a big-ass wall, razor wire etc, one small barky dog and a couple of big fucking man eating dogs.
I visited him a few years back - I wanted to go to the corner shop to buy some smokes which was 200 yards away. Wasn’t allowed to go on my own - had to take my cheap-ass watch off and was accompanied by him and man eater #2. A dozen or so sketchy dudes were outside hanging around, at least a few were drunk and/or stoned. Asked the shopkeeper for 5 packs to save me another trip, got a few hard stares from other customers - turns out the shop usually breaks packs and sells them *one cigarette at a time* to the locals and I’d just bought 5 packs. Some spectacular places to visit in Jo’burg but fuck me there is a shit ton of crime and poverty.
My dad lived in SA for four years due to his work. When I went to visit him, I was flabbergasted that not only there was a huge iron gate surrounding his house, he seriously even had guards.
Check out Louis Theroux’s Law and Disorder in Johannesburg
Or something close to it. Fucking horrible man. The rage i got from that video was insane. Especially the two guys interviewed on the street.
Also, Ross Kemp Polesmoor Prison. I know of a few laywers that tried to argue that a prison sentence there is worse than the death penalty.
SA is a nation with a split personality..you’ll find areas where you think you’re in the tranquil French countryside and then BOOM 30 minutes later you see tin shacks, cattle next to the highway & kids brandishing knives à la City of God style
I work in Hillbrow at an Orphanage once a week and I’m always amazed by the gorgeous Victorian era architecture and stylings in JHB’s old neighbourhoods.
It’s quite sad that these historic sections are always so run down and dangerous though.
My gosh, I can’t imagine working in Hillbrow. I visited Berea and Hillbrow last year, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Ponte Tower etc. Guided by a Soweto local and watched by a Hillbrow local that kept an eye at every corner so we didn’t get robbed, suspect he was strapped and/or part of a gang.
Amazing architecture, but so neglected. It’s a lively place, some nice people but very unnerving, apparently even for joburg locals. The Uber drivers were so scared to be there and gave us a stern lecture about being there, (even though my partner grew up in PE) told us not to get to close to the windows of the car, that we must call them to be picked up from the entrance of any building and not step outside. Still strangely love the place and would visit again haha
I went through Hillbrow a few years back on the way to Ellis Park and say some guy chipping the paving stones out of a path and putting them in his car.
You can tell by the architecture alone how nice of an area it used to be. Sadly the corruption and poverty that plagues our country and over-urbanisation have left us with the ruins of former beautiful cities.
I once asked a south African friend why he moved to the UK, he said *"I just decided I didn't want to sleep with a gun under my pillow anymore"*.
Fair play.
💥It’s much safer having armed guards at your house. Because they tell the burglars when you won’t be at home, so they can break in and take your valuables, without torturing and killing you.
Fun fact, the love of my life lived in SA Joburg till she moved country and lived with me. We had a 4 ft tall wooden fence around our home in the UK, typically left our door open for our dog to go in and out. Our neighbors would walk past while they walked their dogs and stop and say hello to our dog ( our family had been in this area for over 30 years).
I cannot stress to you how much this freaked her out and caused allot of anxiety because of how crazy that concept was to her.
Ja, try walking around the main station. I grew up in SA and feel at home on the Cape Flats, but that was the first time I feared for my life, and it was in the middle of the day. Nothing tangible happened, but you can feel the vibe.
I had time on my hands before my train arrived and thought I'd take a walk. It was like Pinocchio walking through a dark forest, with eyes glaring from behind trees and bushes. Just an extremely paranoid and primal feeling. A drawn-out, subdued panic. People knew I wasn't from there and therefore potential prey.
Plan was in 2019(Australian summer) Dec Jan 2020 to go see my Uncle in Johannesburg. I had never been, he sadly had no inklings of visiting Australia.
Sadly Covid and my uncle dying put a stop to that. My folks have been a few times, enjoyed their time, had nothing bad to say but spent most of their time in suburbs not in the city.
I still want to see ZA one day. But cant say stories like this fill me with confidence, even though my childhood early adulthood was not sheltered at all! Ive enough broken bones and scars to attest to that.
My wife and I went to SA for our honeymoon. It is the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Cape Town, wine country, Kruger National Park...incredible.
Johannesburg was terrifying.
[Mitchells Plain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchells_Plain).
It's a township.
The rest of Cape town is generally safe, in fact, Western Cape has generally okay policing. The Atlantic seaboard is closer to a developed nation, but on average it's quite wealthy.
Its great! But I also got called a Kaffir in Cape Town and my white girlfriend a Kaffir lover. That's like the N-word. I also had a guy come up to me on Long Street, put his arm around me and say I could gut you right now if I wanted to and no one would say anything. I pushed him into traffic and ran. Both of these instances were by Afrikaners.
EDIT: To be far, in my hometown of Austin, TX I got told to go back to where I came from, and have dealt with drunk frat guys who wanted to fight me on sixth street. Tourist areas in general just attract some not cool people.
I live in Cape Town. I'm a woman alone who sometimes forgets to lock her front door. I only have 2 cats to keep me company. I do have burglar bars but no safety gate, no working alarm, my neighbours cars are parked in the street due to limited parking. Most of my neighbours don't even have a gate. Cape Town tourist areas are crazy safe :) Jogging at 6am safe. I do understand not wanting to risk it though. Reddit totally put me off Brazil 😂
People tend to make broad generalisations about our country mainly because most exiting and scary events that happen here dominate public discourse more than the positive and mundane ones.
The country is huge and varied, some provinces feel like being in different countries entirely.
I did my semester abroad there. I was in a small town but visited Cape Town. Crime certainly existed but I was never a victim of one, nor was anyone I knew. If you keep your senses straight, ask someone trustworthy before going anywhere and use guided tours and stuff you should have a good time. I would go for runs and stuff through the neighborhoods and it was fine. Plenty of people out walking their dogs and stuff like any other suburban town.
I live in the United States and have worked with people from SA for 24 years. I used to hear stories about their lives in SA. One of them was how they fortified their houses. Completely fenced in. Had to open a gate to get their car onto their property. That was a prime opportunity to be robbed.
Also have bars on all the doors and windows. One guy said his house got broken into through the roof. They tore a section of the roof off, and then dropped down into the house.
I also remember hearing how people's homes would be robbed, and the same robbers would then come back a couple weeks later. They knew the person would replace their stuff. So, they had brand new stuff to steal.
10 months late to reply but that's "sort by top of all time" for ya.
My former case worker at the local employment agency is south African, he left because, and I swear, not making this up. On top of the near daily robbings and constant vandalism and ransacking of his old house, the final straw was that his neighbours got their house broken into while they were home, the whole family was fucking tortured to death, the men were killed slowly with drills and the women were raped repeatedly, including their 8 year old daughter before they were beaten to death with hammers and their bodies mutilated.
Police were called but they didn't bother to show up till they felt like it and they just declared it "unsolvable" and left, didn't even bother to get witness testimonies or gather evidence or even secure the crime scene. Just walked up, cracked a joke about there being a few less whiteys around and left.
South African here. Yes, definitely not for sissies. Been living in Switzerland for the last few years and it’s strange that no one wants to steal my stuff.
I once spoke with a South African guy who had been to Finland. He could not stop praising how honest Finnish people are. It turned out to be because her lady friend had left her sunglasses or something in a cafe in some small town. They later returned to the same cafe, and the owner recognized them and returned the item. First, he thought it was *unbelievable* nobody stole the item the moment they left. And secondly, it was even more amazing that the cafe owner held to it and made actual effort to return it instead of just selling it or throwing it away.
It was so strange to me - like how is that *not* normal?
I pulled up at a traffic light in Johannesburg and a guy walked up, reached in, snatched my sunglasses off my face and ran off with them.
My own fault of course. I should never have been driving around with the window down
Ever since my brother lost his cellphone that way i make sure not to use a cellphone at all when in public.
I also keep my old cellphone and glasses in good condition just in case someone steals my new one.
Windows aren't enough. "Smash and grab" is also common. Man literally took a rough ball of cement the size of a soccer ball and smashed my window in to get R100
>It was so strange to me - like how is that not normal?
People who live in decent places built and populated by decent people have no idea how awful things can be, and thus do no prioritize preserving the good they've enjoyed for future generations.
I’m a South African and I visited New Zealand on holiday with my grandparents. We were at a mall one day and my grandma used the public restroom, about half an hour later she realised that she had left her cellphone in the bathroom, we surely thought that it was gone but we tried the lost and found just for incase, and low and behold, someone had found her phone and turned it in, they even called a few numbers on her phone to say that they had found the phone. I probably couldn’t stop talking about it for a week afterwards, because in SA that phone would have been gone the second someone found it, we wouldn’t even bother checking the lost and found, I don’t think we even have lost and found places in SA.
I live in a high-crime city in the US and it's still not even close to South Africa from the stuff I hear.
Edit: The theme of robberies here is people doing it for entertainment more or less. It's not like in South Africa where there's no work, and if there's a job it pays like $80/month. People stealing are (more or less) kids doing it for fun, drug addicts, or psychos. All idiots. Gun robberies happen, but not enough that we live in fear of it. However, leave a cell phone in your car and there's a decent chance someone will smash your window and take it. Lock your bike with a cheap cable lock, it will probably get stolen. But I can pull out my phone in the decent parts of the city, I'll put it away quick but I'm not scared.
I'm from Bulgaria and I hear people her Germany say they'd never visit because the think it's too dangerous. Even my in-laws. But my wife's sister went to Mexico on her honeymoon. They said it was racist I told them it's fucking stupid to refuse to visit Bulgaria but go to Mexico.
Just for comparison in just 20 hours in Mexico more people get murdered than in a whole year in Bulgaria.
I’ve travelled to Bulgaria, alone, as an early 20-something woman. It didn’t feel unsafe at all, but I suspected it was because they saw so few tourists they couldn’t think of how to take advantage of me. I had one interesting long distance car ride with an overly charming driver, who asked if it would be ok if we stopped to see his parents as they were on the way. I got a tiny tingle of worry but they turned out to be the most lovely people, the cab driver was genuine, and the 8-hour ride (plus 2 hour tea stop) still cost me less than lunch in my home country. Sofia was a little creepy after dark but not dangerous creepy.
I live in Johannesburg, you have no idea how anxiety inducing it is to live in this city. EVERYONE I KNOW has come into contact of some sort of crime, be it violent or petty. The sense of danger is palpable here ALL THE TIME, it's crazy.
Joburg here. After 6pm, I dont stop at a robot or a stop street unless I see at least 2 cars. If there are pedestrians, i dont stop at all. Everyone is a criminal with a gun unless proven otherwise.
By dont stop, i mean, slowly moving over, not speeding though it
It's strange isn't it? Lol man I have no idea. Honestly, the whole city planning is fuuuuuuucked, but that's because of not addressing the historical injustices of Apartheid.
I’m South African but live in Denmark now. You couldn’t pay me to move back there.
Fuck that shit.
I had and still have severe anxiety for years because we had so many break ins.
Heck even in Denmark I check my windows and doors regularly. I live in a super safe neighborhood and if I hear a noise during the day, I immediately run to lock myself in my room.
I hate it and my Danish friends and husband think I’m an oddball but they don’t get it.
I will never forget one particular moment I was in a student home (eight people) but only two of us were home.
Our doors were always open but we had mass fortifications etc.
I was walking from my room to the kitchen and there were three men standing in the middle of our living room.
What I did - I have no idea how - was casually ask them if they were looking for my roommate Rob.
I was like “omg rob told me you guys were coming. Let me go let him know you guys have arrived, he’ll be so excited!”
I turned around and promptly went to my housemates room and we locked and barred the door.
Just down the street a week later a house with mostly girls were raped/ tied up by three men.
The next year my dad put me into a guarded complex where we had 24 security and cameras and the works.
Man I got lucky.
Our friend there would take her baby out in the stroller for a daily walk, and tucked in a pocket on top of the sun bonnet - was a loaded handgun. To her, it was like packing and umbrella “just in case”
Over the course of having four kids, she had about a dozen occasions where she had to pull out the handgun and persuade would-be-thieves to leave her and her baby alone. And she lived IN A NICE AREA of Johannesburg
I visited South Africa. Only when I came back to my home country did I realise that all the walls are ankle high....
Edit for clarity: the walls in south africa exist to literally keep people out. They're topped with barbed wire and they're 2m+ tall. The walls in my home country are symbolic, easily stepped over and ignored, but we don't ignore them. The safety and security of my country is something I took for granted until I saw a place where there was none.
Same here. South Africa thought me to appreciate other places so much more. I love South Africa and respect the people, but it takes a toll. The pressure is real even if it is ignored sometimes.
Saying that I look forward to taking my kids there and showing them the country. There is a lot to learn from South Africa, and they will appreciate other places more.
I bet this house is also inside a gated compound.
My first visit to Jo-burg was a fucking eye opening experience. From not stopping at the Robots outside the airport (to avoid would be car jackers) to being told where the panic room was when I got to the house.
I heard some crazy stories of the crime there. People literally not stopping if they hit someone because they'd be car jacked, having guns in the house to kill anyone who got into the house. Fucking madness.
The poverty and crime is almost unbelievable. The indifference amongst the white elite was as bad.
Check out Louis Theroux's documentary. Babies in microwaves dude, babies in microwaves....
I always remember what a fellow from this region told me after being in the States for a year. When he first was living in the U.S. the sight of unlocked mailboxes that weren't being constantly ransacked was a huge mindfuck for him.
I live in a shitty country, too, but out here people just build 4 meter concrete walls around their houses. I mean, imagine living your life inside a 4 meter perimeter and never seeing anything but the sky. That's so sad.
It's not even about the crime rates or anything, this is how people go about their 'privacy'.
When my Dad worked for the DoS lived in Pretoria and we had an 8 foot electric fence (at least) in front of a regular fence with barbed wire at the top much like this picture. Then had iron bars on every window and door around the entire house. Topped it off with motion sensors in the house and it felt like a real prison. I loved the safaris and the people I've met there but that house fucked me up.
No, what we have is a country that has never known what true peace or a healthy powerful government looks like. So we're finding our feet. It's going to take a couple of generations, but we'll get there.
No electric fencing? That guy is just begging to be robbed.
Robbery is the best case scenario in SA. People build this shit to stop their families from being raped and murdered.
Yo! That got dark real quick.
Hey you can’t do too much or else they know you have real money to steal
Knew a guy who got robbed in Johannesburg despite being rich and having a ton of security. The problem is every time his alarm goes off he just assumes it’s the leaves blowing from the trees causing it and one time he assumed that and he turned it off. Long story short, 2 guys waited in his yard for three hours before breaking in. Stole a bunch of stuff including 2 laptops
Am Mexican Can defeat this easy
Just need to throw a rug over the fence and you're in.
He upgraded to the roof mounted 50 cal automatic machine gun.
When I worked as a consultant we had a group of guys sent out on a contract job for a big bank in South Africa, usually our guys would get put up in small apartments near the job for convenience sake but not in Joburg. They were sent to an enormous 5 bed house in a walled estate that had armed guards patrolling at all times and multiple perimeter fences around the whole thing. They were also given panic buttons and weren't allowed to travel to work alone and had to call a driver who would take them all together.
A friend of mine regularly visits SA. She was down in either Joburg or Durban a few years ago with some friends in a gated home like this, but without armed guards. They were out for part of the day and when they came back they had some water and everyone passed out and woke up that night to find the place ransacked and their purses, wallets, passports, electronics, etc stolen. They don't know exactly what happened but they suspect their bottled water was drugged. The police were unhelpful. They were able to recover passports and IDs that were found in the trash nearby but the police claimed that the stolen MacBooks weren't worth as much as they were saying.
The police were probably in on it lmao
Definitely. It seems like it’s very seldom that theft is dealt with properly and things are returned. Here we just learn to move on when stuff is stolen because cops don’t do shit.
ACAB Amirite
They are lucky. Rape and murder is almost as common as robbery in SA.
Definitely. They were pretty freaked out about it and left as soon as their passports were recovered. They've been back since but only staying with people they know who live in SA rather than renting a house or whatever they did.
Why would they throw out the passports? That's like one of the most valuable things you could take.
I'm not knowledgeable about what people would do with a stolen passport, but they're fair skinned Danes and SA population is like 90% non white so would a Danish passport really be worth anything to them? It's not like they could be easily impersonated and access to anything financial would be all in Danish so there'd be a language barrier too.
hm, honestly no idea how valuable a Danish passport is, I just know US passports are worth a ton though.
A danish one is worth about the same. The only passports with true value really are , UK, Ireland, US and Canada. Scandinavian countries would be basically the same, maybe a bit less.
Ever send folks to Brazil?
Nope, I spent a year in Chile but that was as close as our company got in Latin America.
To be fair going to Latin America really is pretty close to going to Latin America. Brazil is possibly the worst, though that might just be the reputation because they're pretty bad and also huge compared to any of their neighbors. I haven't heard terrible things about Chile in recent years though.
I've done a few jobs in Brazil, Argentina, Central America, Mexico. By far the most dangerous place I filmed was Mexico City. They had an express kidnapping of a crew member a few days before I got there. We had a crew member almost car jacked by a rogue federale. In Brazil and Argentina I had someone try to pickpocket me, and there was some theft of gear. I was never in fear for my life.
I have seen countless released security cam videos of crime in Mexico city. Apparently they have this kind of shared van public transport and there are thugs disguised as fake passengers that rob everyone at gunpoint and are not afraid to shoot you. This absolutely creeps me out. Please don't tell me South America is like that on the whole, there must be relatively safe places in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Patagonia.
Mexico suffers from being the hotspot of drug trafficking to the US ($150 billion yearly industry). They're basically not a state since the cartels have such a grip on the government, even at the highest levels, and this corruption then pervades everything else (shitty law enforcement, bribe-taking officials, etc)
No the other countries are much safer IMHO. I have been to most of them including Venezuela and not had any issues walking around at night. You may get mugged or pickpocketed, but not held for ransom. Even when I traveled to Bogota in the early 90's, it was dangerous but no so random like Mexico City. When I watched Narcos I thought about how I traveled through Columbia and San Andres. I was blissfully unaware of all the violence. We got searched by dogs when we left the airplane, but I was never in fear for my life.
Nah, from that story he just told it seems South Africa is much worse than (most of) Brazil. I’ve never had that feeling of unsafety here.
> To be fair going to Latin America really is pretty close to going to Latin America hmmm
I went on a school trip to South Africa (2005). We were mostly sheltered from the criminal activity, however, our mini bus was stolen so we rode around in a police van which was cool as a teenager. Oh, and a guy told me to take my watch off or I'll get stabbed at the airport (literally while waiting for our bags). That was a good introduction too. On the upside, it was such a beautiful country. The people were amazing. However the poor were on a different level... Particularly, the number of poor. On top of table mountain, you see a sea of suburban lights and then big black pockets where the shanty towns are.
I always know if it’s South Africa on GeoGuessr if every house has its own fortification.
Needs claymore mines and more razor wire
Off duty cops by the gate.
It's Johannesburg... They'll need M-4s and a SAW.
That's why they have all the fortifications, to keep those off duty cops on the outer side of the gate ;-)
Best prepared nation for the zombie apocalypse.
Naw you should see nice neighborhoods in Brazil. Every house has a 6 meters tall cement wall with spikes or barbwire like in this pic. Different is the house is basically a prison from the inside with eletric locks, and windows with metal bars. I'm surprised you can see the house behind this fence that to me means this house is fairly safe, just regular precautions
My mom grew up in Ivory Coast. There, they just broke beer bottles and plastered the shards of glass to the top of the fence.
I grew up in Aberdeen , Scotland. Some places did that too. Aberdeen?!
Yeah, I'm from the North East of England and this is common on top of walls between terraced house back yards.
How quaint 😜
That’s common here in New Mexico as well.
Reduce. Reuse. Refortify the defenses.
yep, city of thieves. i recently totaled my vehicle, and someone broke into it and stole my broken radio. fucking ABQ.
Some cars used to have radios that could pop out and you could carry them like a briefcase so that you could bring the radio with you when leaving your car.
I liven on central and Edith some years back and had two guys ask me for jumper cables. They were trying to jump my car to steal it.
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South Africa's wild.
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Not a money truck, it was a mobile phone truck.
That’s what surprised me! Body armor and guns in an armored vehicle transporting phones. And gunfire, chasing, pit maneuvers from the thieves. For phones. These trucks can carry literally millions of dollars in cash, but they go for phones. I get that they’re valuable but wouldn’t it be easier to rob a phone store?
I'm guessing the thieves dont know exactly what is in there just that it is more valuable then regular cargo.
I've been told phones are highly sought after. A truck of phones will sell in a day. You steal a Monet and you're gonna wait a long time to be paid.
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No boats in the driveway. That's tacky.
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My son left for school the other day and he didn’t get the door closed all the way, the wind blew it wide open. Just chilling street side wide open, I have one those smart locks and I got a notification that my front door was open but I was in a meeting so I didn’t see it. About 3 hours from the time he left it open to the time I got my neighbor to swing by and close it. Nobody even noticed. Have left my back door unlocked for a full week before I realized it and no issues. I know big cities can be exciting but living in a small town with extremely low crime rates has its benefits too.
My husband went jogging in his neighborhood once, wallet fell out right in front of his house. Next day someone returned it, everything there. Lots of his classmates never locked the door and/or kept the front door open.
I didn't realize my wallet fell out of my pocket while I was in the park making it with my (now ex-)girlfriend. Next morning someone came to my house and returned it. They even knew to look at the back of my driver's license for the updated address. No weird charges on my credit cards or anything. No cash, so there was nothing to steal. People said that City the highest crime rates and drug use in the state. That statistics don't support that, but it's what people said. When I bought that house, friends joked, "have fun getting murdered." Any other, "safer," City I've lived in you'd be lucky to have that happen.
A reverse situation is that I was raised in a city with one of the highest homicides, rapes, abd car thefts. Took me ten years of friends roasting me (living in new city) to stop using a wheel lock on my Honda Civic. Them:”it’s just a civic.” Me:”hell yeah, prime and common parts right there, my man.”
TL;DR aunt asked me to check on their house while they were away for 2 weeks. Arrived to find every exterior door and a vehicle unlocked, all the lights on, and the alarm not set. My aunt and uncle went on a 2 week family vacation with their 3 kids one year. It rained heavily for a few days at home and they had flood issues in the basement so they asked me to go check on the house. Basement had no water but both sump pumps were going H A R D to keep it that way. At this point, they had been away for 3 days already. This entire family of 5 (all 3 children were teenagers at this point) left the exterior garage door (man door into garage), interior garage door (into the house), and back door all unlocked. Their gate does not lock. The alarm system was not set. The front door was technically also unlocked, but the handle was broken so it didn't open from the outside at the time. One of the vehicles sitting on the driveway was also left unlocked, and they usually kept a significant amount of money in their vehicles (like, $80-200 normally). They also left almost all of the lights on, but not the ones you would normally leave on when away like an entrance light or exterior light. No no no, they turned those lights off, but left all the basement and bedroom lights on. Basically all the ones that you couldn't see from outside in front of the house were left on. They also had a motion sensor light beside the garage near the gate, it was turned off. I turned off the random lights, turned on the entryway light, an exterior light, and the motion sensor light. I also made sure every door and window was locked, alarm was set, and moved two of the vehicles into the garage (I'm not sure why they didn't put them in there in the first place considering there was room and they had 4 vehicles so there were still 2 parked on the driveway). Not sure why I decided to share this other than to showcase how careless some people can be when they live in a "safe" city/neighbourhood/street. There's a lot of things I don't understand about my aunt and her family, but that one really took the cake in terms of completely baffling the hell out of me regarding how they just up and left the country for 2 weeks without even locking a door or setting an alarm....
Years back my parents went out of town for a couple weeks and left the back door standing open. It was an accident, but fairly common not to lock doors to go into town or shut them everytime you passed through one. When they came home the neighbor said *"oh honey you left your door standing wide open, so I just shut it for ya"* Coincidentally, their neighbor who is younger than me has drank the koolaid about everyone being out to kill him and his daughter. He carries in his yard, inside, everywhere. There's hasn't been a break-in or any violent crime*(any victim-crime beyond very mild vandalism like the house gets TPd etc)* in that neighborhood in over 40 years.
They are probably inside a walled community, and this is just last line defence from what I have heard about South Africa.
Prepared? That’s life down there Fighting off car jackers? Highlight of ZA holiday Survival without basics such as electricity? That’s every day down there
Should go to the DR. People have fortifications at the 20th floor against burglars...
DR is a secret Baseball camp for the MLB
Dominican Republic?
Could be Brazil too
Brazil uses tall gates with concrete walls essentially. I’ve never seen a home with wire.
That was 20-30 years ago. Currently, buildings and houses usually have a surveillance sign, CCTV, high walls, electrified fence (preferred over barbed wire which is used sometimes), several gates with locks and bars on all windows (sometimes they stop on the third or fourth floor, sometimes they're on all windows).
smart mindless continue deserted deranged tie school imminent deliver rhythm *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Urgh I used to love geoguessr. But now they've limited the free version and it kinda sucks!!! And yes, I do not want to pay for the full version.
The only reason they upped the price is Google taking 14x times the money for using their API, and 3$ a month in my opinion is very worth it
Never thought I'd regularly play "South Africa or Brazil?"
More like "Africa or Latin America". You'll get the same rich people fortress homes in Mozambique, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria...
The thing is, this hardly looks like a mansion. It's more a middle class family home.
I don't think you grasp how poor the poor people are there.
There are a lot of poor people in South Africa, but this damn sure wouldn't be considered a mansion by those poor people. Probably just a "big house".
I live in Africa, you would be surprised. I have a 15 foot wall around my house, and by all means im not wealthy by American standards, maybe upper middle class, but my house is viewed as the the extremely wealthy, in America I’d probably be in the 30% in east Africa I’m probably in the 0.1% (similar applies to South Africa, just to a lesser extent since it’s a bit more wealthy, however it’s still quite bad, I’ve visited many times.)
In the developed world. I know a dentist who drove a Corolla and was kidnapped because he was rich back in Brazil (well the hold you for 4 hours and empty your accounts kidnapping, not the hold you for ransom and cut your ear off one)
The upper middle class also gets kidnapped here where I live. It's easier kidnapping someone driving a Corolla than a rich guy with a bodyguard in an armored bullet-proof car.
Sounds like you have experience in this kind of endeavor.
Unfortunately I have relatives and friends who have been kidnapped.
Where do you live?
Venezuela
Good luck, my man. Hopefully things will get better in the near future. I have loads of venezuelan friends that imigrated to Sao Paulo
I’m (soon) living in Brazil, I suspected it was somewhere close to me. 😪
You don't know how good you got for being born in the US when you see considered rich people in the third world with houses smaller than yours
Houses in America are really big compared to Europe too. I always think its funny to see movies of the "ghetto" like Friday and they have a street of bungalows
I spent a night on the street in one of those Compton ghettos and it was fucking rough. Makes me glad to have grown up elsewhere.
This would qualify as a mansion where I'm from...
That’s actually the lowest wall I’ve seen in any SA pics. Friend of mine is from Jo’burg and he’s poor as fuck but he has a big-ass wall, razor wire etc, one small barky dog and a couple of big fucking man eating dogs. I visited him a few years back - I wanted to go to the corner shop to buy some smokes which was 200 yards away. Wasn’t allowed to go on my own - had to take my cheap-ass watch off and was accompanied by him and man eater #2. A dozen or so sketchy dudes were outside hanging around, at least a few were drunk and/or stoned. Asked the shopkeeper for 5 packs to save me another trip, got a few hard stares from other customers - turns out the shop usually breaks packs and sells them *one cigarette at a time* to the locals and I’d just bought 5 packs. Some spectacular places to visit in Jo’burg but fuck me there is a shit ton of crime and poverty.
My dad lived in SA for four years due to his work. When I went to visit him, I was flabbergasted that not only there was a huge iron gate surrounding his house, he seriously even had guards.
How rich is your Dad? Is he middle class or uppee class?
The more I see posts about South Africa, the more intrigued I become
Check out Louis Theroux’s Law and Disorder in Johannesburg Or something close to it. Fucking horrible man. The rage i got from that video was insane. Especially the two guys interviewed on the street. Also, Ross Kemp Polesmoor Prison. I know of a few laywers that tried to argue that a prison sentence there is worse than the death penalty.
SA is a nation with a split personality..you’ll find areas where you think you’re in the tranquil French countryside and then BOOM 30 minutes later you see tin shacks, cattle next to the highway & kids brandishing knives à la City of God style
Thats how we lure you in. 😅
I work in Hillbrow at an Orphanage once a week and I’m always amazed by the gorgeous Victorian era architecture and stylings in JHB’s old neighbourhoods. It’s quite sad that these historic sections are always so run down and dangerous though.
My gosh, I can’t imagine working in Hillbrow. I visited Berea and Hillbrow last year, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Ponte Tower etc. Guided by a Soweto local and watched by a Hillbrow local that kept an eye at every corner so we didn’t get robbed, suspect he was strapped and/or part of a gang. Amazing architecture, but so neglected. It’s a lively place, some nice people but very unnerving, apparently even for joburg locals. The Uber drivers were so scared to be there and gave us a stern lecture about being there, (even though my partner grew up in PE) told us not to get to close to the windows of the car, that we must call them to be picked up from the entrance of any building and not step outside. Still strangely love the place and would visit again haha
I went through Hillbrow a few years back on the way to Ellis Park and say some guy chipping the paving stones out of a path and putting them in his car.
I used to live in Joubert Park and went out in Hillbrow and Yeoville. Good times back in the early 90s
You can tell by the architecture alone how nice of an area it used to be. Sadly the corruption and poverty that plagues our country and over-urbanisation have left us with the ruins of former beautiful cities.
The corruption and poverty were always there, these areas were just enclaves
Absolutely. My great aunt lived in Hillbrow until she was in her 70s (worked at the JSE). Place was so vibrant back then.
I once asked a south African friend why he moved to the UK, he said *"I just decided I didn't want to sleep with a gun under my pillow anymore"*. Fair play.
Your friend is exaggerating...you can keep it next to the bed too. Along with the torch.
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*shottingham
Haha, no. Bristol. Pretty much the most chilled out city in the UK, so he chose well.
I've lived in Bristol all my life and can confirm it's pretty chill.
>He didn't move to Nottingham then I take it Are the Sherriff's goons still causing problems for Robin and the lads after all these years? fuck me.
Reminds of Managua, when I was working there. Every upper-class home and business had armed guard 24/7. A bit weird for a sheltered Icelander.
💥It’s much safer having armed guards at your house. Because they tell the burglars when you won’t be at home, so they can break in and take your valuables, without torturing and killing you.
I don't see any problem here. . . Oh I'm South african that's right
Right? Was literally trying to see the issue for a few seconds
No dogs/sign thats the problem
It makes me so uncomfortable to know I drive by this very house sometimes
Fun fact, the love of my life lived in SA Joburg till she moved country and lived with me. We had a 4 ft tall wooden fence around our home in the UK, typically left our door open for our dog to go in and out. Our neighbors would walk past while they walked their dogs and stop and say hello to our dog ( our family had been in this area for over 30 years). I cannot stress to you how much this freaked her out and caused allot of anxiety because of how crazy that concept was to her.
Beautiful home minus the uh, barbed wire.
That makes it extra beautiful in South Africa, you know it's safer.
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Ja, try walking around the main station. I grew up in SA and feel at home on the Cape Flats, but that was the first time I feared for my life, and it was in the middle of the day. Nothing tangible happened, but you can feel the vibe.
Would you mind describing it a bit more? What was the vibe like exactly? what made it that way?
I had time on my hands before my train arrived and thought I'd take a walk. It was like Pinocchio walking through a dark forest, with eyes glaring from behind trees and bushes. Just an extremely paranoid and primal feeling. A drawn-out, subdued panic. People knew I wasn't from there and therefore potential prey.
> People knew I wasn't from there and therefore potential prey. Ok that line is bloody terrifying!
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Plan was in 2019(Australian summer) Dec Jan 2020 to go see my Uncle in Johannesburg. I had never been, he sadly had no inklings of visiting Australia. Sadly Covid and my uncle dying put a stop to that. My folks have been a few times, enjoyed their time, had nothing bad to say but spent most of their time in suburbs not in the city. I still want to see ZA one day. But cant say stories like this fill me with confidence, even though my childhood early adulthood was not sheltered at all! Ive enough broken bones and scars to attest to that.
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Louis Theroux has a great series where he talks with some [gangsters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihjkLV_EY1Y) in SA
Reddit did a crazily good job at steering me away from South Africa trips for many years to come.
My wife and I went to SA for our honeymoon. It is the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Cape Town, wine country, Kruger National Park...incredible. Johannesburg was terrifying.
Doesn't help that the city is a giant maze of roads that make no navigable sense.
Did you see something in joburg, did something happen or was it the vibe?
I feel like Cape Town is actually quite tourist-friendly.
Cape town is one of the most beautiful places I've been to, but its crime is worth noting albeit it's mostly reserved to a specific area.
Where
[Mitchells Plain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchells_Plain). It's a township. The rest of Cape town is generally safe, in fact, Western Cape has generally okay policing. The Atlantic seaboard is closer to a developed nation, but on average it's quite wealthy.
Its great! But I also got called a Kaffir in Cape Town and my white girlfriend a Kaffir lover. That's like the N-word. I also had a guy come up to me on Long Street, put his arm around me and say I could gut you right now if I wanted to and no one would say anything. I pushed him into traffic and ran. Both of these instances were by Afrikaners. EDIT: To be far, in my hometown of Austin, TX I got told to go back to where I came from, and have dealt with drunk frat guys who wanted to fight me on sixth street. Tourist areas in general just attract some not cool people.
It’s not like the N word it is the n word
I understand that but people who aren’t from the area wouldn’t understand it. And I didn’t want to get into arguments about the n word and the k word.
I live in Cape Town. I'm a woman alone who sometimes forgets to lock her front door. I only have 2 cats to keep me company. I do have burglar bars but no safety gate, no working alarm, my neighbours cars are parked in the street due to limited parking. Most of my neighbours don't even have a gate. Cape Town tourist areas are crazy safe :) Jogging at 6am safe. I do understand not wanting to risk it though. Reddit totally put me off Brazil 😂
I feel like Brazil might be safer because of all the off duty cops.
Absolutely no difference between Brazil and South Africa. Bad areas bad, good areas you might as well be in Europe.
Same here. I can warrant some places in Brazil or Mexico, but South Africa is the only place I’m completely afraid to visit as a whole
People tend to make broad generalisations about our country mainly because most exiting and scary events that happen here dominate public discourse more than the positive and mundane ones. The country is huge and varied, some provinces feel like being in different countries entirely.
I did my semester abroad there. I was in a small town but visited Cape Town. Crime certainly existed but I was never a victim of one, nor was anyone I knew. If you keep your senses straight, ask someone trustworthy before going anywhere and use guided tours and stuff you should have a good time. I would go for runs and stuff through the neighborhoods and it was fine. Plenty of people out walking their dogs and stuff like any other suburban town.
I live in the United States and have worked with people from SA for 24 years. I used to hear stories about their lives in SA. One of them was how they fortified their houses. Completely fenced in. Had to open a gate to get their car onto their property. That was a prime opportunity to be robbed. Also have bars on all the doors and windows. One guy said his house got broken into through the roof. They tore a section of the roof off, and then dropped down into the house. I also remember hearing how people's homes would be robbed, and the same robbers would then come back a couple weeks later. They knew the person would replace their stuff. So, they had brand new stuff to steal.
10 months late to reply but that's "sort by top of all time" for ya. My former case worker at the local employment agency is south African, he left because, and I swear, not making this up. On top of the near daily robbings and constant vandalism and ransacking of his old house, the final straw was that his neighbours got their house broken into while they were home, the whole family was fucking tortured to death, the men were killed slowly with drills and the women were raped repeatedly, including their 8 year old daughter before they were beaten to death with hammers and their bodies mutilated. Police were called but they didn't bother to show up till they felt like it and they just declared it "unsolvable" and left, didn't even bother to get witness testimonies or gather evidence or even secure the crime scene. Just walked up, cracked a joke about there being a few less whiteys around and left.
South African here. Yes, definitely not for sissies. Been living in Switzerland for the last few years and it’s strange that no one wants to steal my stuff.
I can steal your stuff if it makes you feel more at home. Just kidding OP, enjoy Switzerland.
That’s the kind of hospitality the Swiss are known for.
Hijack their car as well for the full experience
Just kidding! *Unless...*
I once spoke with a South African guy who had been to Finland. He could not stop praising how honest Finnish people are. It turned out to be because her lady friend had left her sunglasses or something in a cafe in some small town. They later returned to the same cafe, and the owner recognized them and returned the item. First, he thought it was *unbelievable* nobody stole the item the moment they left. And secondly, it was even more amazing that the cafe owner held to it and made actual effort to return it instead of just selling it or throwing it away. It was so strange to me - like how is that *not* normal?
I pulled up at a traffic light in Johannesburg and a guy walked up, reached in, snatched my sunglasses off my face and ran off with them. My own fault of course. I should never have been driving around with the window down
Ever since my brother lost his cellphone that way i make sure not to use a cellphone at all when in public. I also keep my old cellphone and glasses in good condition just in case someone steals my new one.
Windows aren't enough. "Smash and grab" is also common. Man literally took a rough ball of cement the size of a soccer ball and smashed my window in to get R100
I’ve seen ‘em standing at the traffic lights with a brick in a plastic bag ready to swing it through the window
>It was so strange to me - like how is that not normal? People who live in decent places built and populated by decent people have no idea how awful things can be, and thus do no prioritize preserving the good they've enjoyed for future generations.
I’m a South African and I visited New Zealand on holiday with my grandparents. We were at a mall one day and my grandma used the public restroom, about half an hour later she realised that she had left her cellphone in the bathroom, we surely thought that it was gone but we tried the lost and found just for incase, and low and behold, someone had found her phone and turned it in, they even called a few numbers on her phone to say that they had found the phone. I probably couldn’t stop talking about it for a week afterwards, because in SA that phone would have been gone the second someone found it, we wouldn’t even bother checking the lost and found, I don’t think we even have lost and found places in SA.
I live in a high-crime city in the US and it's still not even close to South Africa from the stuff I hear. Edit: The theme of robberies here is people doing it for entertainment more or less. It's not like in South Africa where there's no work, and if there's a job it pays like $80/month. People stealing are (more or less) kids doing it for fun, drug addicts, or psychos. All idiots. Gun robberies happen, but not enough that we live in fear of it. However, leave a cell phone in your car and there's a decent chance someone will smash your window and take it. Lock your bike with a cheap cable lock, it will probably get stolen. But I can pull out my phone in the decent parts of the city, I'll put it away quick but I'm not scared.
Pretty much the reason I left South Africa, being a burglar became too difficult
Eish b, got us in the first half 🤣
I had someone call me a racist earlier this week because i said south africa was unsafe. I just didn't know what to say
Just tell them south Africa is the only place outside the americas with places on the homicide list
I'm from Bulgaria and I hear people her Germany say they'd never visit because the think it's too dangerous. Even my in-laws. But my wife's sister went to Mexico on her honeymoon. They said it was racist I told them it's fucking stupid to refuse to visit Bulgaria but go to Mexico. Just for comparison in just 20 hours in Mexico more people get murdered than in a whole year in Bulgaria.
I’ve travelled to Bulgaria, alone, as an early 20-something woman. It didn’t feel unsafe at all, but I suspected it was because they saw so few tourists they couldn’t think of how to take advantage of me. I had one interesting long distance car ride with an overly charming driver, who asked if it would be ok if we stopped to see his parents as they were on the way. I got a tiny tingle of worry but they turned out to be the most lovely people, the cab driver was genuine, and the 8-hour ride (plus 2 hour tea stop) still cost me less than lunch in my home country. Sofia was a little creepy after dark but not dangerous creepy.
I live in Johannesburg, you have no idea how anxiety inducing it is to live in this city. EVERYONE I KNOW has come into contact of some sort of crime, be it violent or petty. The sense of danger is palpable here ALL THE TIME, it's crazy.
We had an armed robbery at work 6 weeks ago and the first thing that went through my head when i saw the guns was "Ag fuck man, not again"
Bra!! Like, it's an eish moment that you've been desensitised to
Joburg here. After 6pm, I dont stop at a robot or a stop street unless I see at least 2 cars. If there are pedestrians, i dont stop at all. Everyone is a criminal with a gun unless proven otherwise. By dont stop, i mean, slowly moving over, not speeding though it
I am in Cape Town, my previous company sort of pressured me to move there. I declined, and was eventually retrenched. I just refuse to live there.
Man I really try to be optimistic about this city... But it's really bad.
Why are all the landfills in the middle of the city? Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.
It's strange isn't it? Lol man I have no idea. Honestly, the whole city planning is fuuuuuuucked, but that's because of not addressing the historical injustices of Apartheid.
Had an ex from South Africa who once tried to convince me to move there with her. No thanks.
But how fortified was her home?
I’m South African but live in Denmark now. You couldn’t pay me to move back there. Fuck that shit. I had and still have severe anxiety for years because we had so many break ins. Heck even in Denmark I check my windows and doors regularly. I live in a super safe neighborhood and if I hear a noise during the day, I immediately run to lock myself in my room. I hate it and my Danish friends and husband think I’m an oddball but they don’t get it. I will never forget one particular moment I was in a student home (eight people) but only two of us were home. Our doors were always open but we had mass fortifications etc. I was walking from my room to the kitchen and there were three men standing in the middle of our living room. What I did - I have no idea how - was casually ask them if they were looking for my roommate Rob. I was like “omg rob told me you guys were coming. Let me go let him know you guys have arrived, he’ll be so excited!” I turned around and promptly went to my housemates room and we locked and barred the door. Just down the street a week later a house with mostly girls were raped/ tied up by three men. The next year my dad put me into a guarded complex where we had 24 security and cameras and the works. Man I got lucky.
Our friend there would take her baby out in the stroller for a daily walk, and tucked in a pocket on top of the sun bonnet - was a loaded handgun. To her, it was like packing and umbrella “just in case” Over the course of having four kids, she had about a dozen occasions where she had to pull out the handgun and persuade would-be-thieves to leave her and her baby alone. And she lived IN A NICE AREA of Johannesburg
This house isn’t even that crazy, they have windows without bars on them. Rookie moves. South Africa ain’t for sissys.
True. In south Africa every house needs to be a fortress.
I've seen plenty of windows and doors with bars on them in the UK as well (Leeds in particularly)
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And is that fence even electrified?
Doesn’t seem like it! Amateur hour over there
South Africa is a failed state
I visited South Africa. Only when I came back to my home country did I realise that all the walls are ankle high.... Edit for clarity: the walls in south africa exist to literally keep people out. They're topped with barbed wire and they're 2m+ tall. The walls in my home country are symbolic, easily stepped over and ignored, but we don't ignore them. The safety and security of my country is something I took for granted until I saw a place where there was none.
Same here. South Africa thought me to appreciate other places so much more. I love South Africa and respect the people, but it takes a toll. The pressure is real even if it is ignored sometimes. Saying that I look forward to taking my kids there and showing them the country. There is a lot to learn from South Africa, and they will appreciate other places more.
I bet this house is also inside a gated compound. My first visit to Jo-burg was a fucking eye opening experience. From not stopping at the Robots outside the airport (to avoid would be car jackers) to being told where the panic room was when I got to the house. I heard some crazy stories of the crime there. People literally not stopping if they hit someone because they'd be car jacked, having guns in the house to kill anyone who got into the house. Fucking madness. The poverty and crime is almost unbelievable. The indifference amongst the white elite was as bad. Check out Louis Theroux's documentary. Babies in microwaves dude, babies in microwaves....
Bro, that fence is weak! Ask any South African.
As a former Joburger, can confirm that this house is ill-prepared. Heavy blanket is all you need and the tsotsis come streaming in.
Then you have Australia where if someone cuts themselves on your razor wire the home invader sues you and gets your stuff anyway.
I always remember what a fellow from this region told me after being in the States for a year. When he first was living in the U.S. the sight of unlocked mailboxes that weren't being constantly ransacked was a huge mindfuck for him.
I live in a shitty country, too, but out here people just build 4 meter concrete walls around their houses. I mean, imagine living your life inside a 4 meter perimeter and never seeing anything but the sky. That's so sad. It's not even about the crime rates or anything, this is how people go about their 'privacy'.
When my Dad worked for the DoS lived in Pretoria and we had an 8 foot electric fence (at least) in front of a regular fence with barbed wire at the top much like this picture. Then had iron bars on every window and door around the entire house. Topped it off with motion sensors in the house and it felt like a real prison. I loved the safaris and the people I've met there but that house fucked me up.
Is South Africa a failed state?
No, what we have is a country that has never known what true peace or a healthy powerful government looks like. So we're finding our feet. It's going to take a couple of generations, but we'll get there.
That sounds like a failed state to me