The safety of Cape Town: ¿Blank pistols?

For: Javier Brandoli (text and photos)

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¿A's with machete or gun? Typical phrase (take as a metaphor) among foreigners in South Africa with which to start a conversation. Something like working or studying southern version and some toast. Many conversations in South Africa revolve around the times you have stolen and the times I could steal. Urban legends spread by word of mouth and everyone knows someone who has been robbed. Yesterday, a guy who has been here for a few months took out a map of the city to show me the dangerous areas. After studying his proposal carefully I have come to the conclusion that I need to rent a helicopter to walk around the city, buy me a pole or live on a sea bream in the middle of the sea. According to his scientific study I should have already been docked six times where I live and three times the day I walked across a neighborhood on the way to the Waterfront from downtown. Me dijo: "Don't even try it out there. Nor by day ”.

But maybe, To better exemplify the paranoia experienced here with security, I will explain what happened to me today with Jann, a white woman, from 40yyy, who has shown me some apartments to rent. In the car he explained that I am a little tired of listening all the time to talk about how dangerous the city is. It, Very safe, tells me that "noooooo", that this city is very safe and that she in 20 years he has been here he has not had any problem. "Like other cities", remark, "This is not Johannesburg". Then, however, three hundred meters later, She explained to me that she never parks more than two blocks when she has to go to a restaurant because she has met some friends. (Madrid, that if you park six kilometers from the premises you get out of the car satisfied, this one had not had dinner yet); "If necessary, I will call someone to accompany me", has apostilled. He also told me that if he sees a group of young boys on the street, he changes his sidewalk or goes into a store.; He asked me if I want him to put a fence on the terrace of the loft that I still rent… Yes, When I told him that it seems ridiculous to me to call a taxi to cross six blocks, he said to me “noooooo, if the city is safe ”. (You must have thought that if I continued instead of your loft I was going to rent a tank).

My perception is that it is exaggerated a little. The funny thing is that all those who say that they live the most at night in the city are those who talk the least about insecurity

The truth is that there are also less apprehensive people who offer their practical advice: Carry a wallet with less money in your pocket, in sight, which will be the one to take away; walk in the light and along wide avenues at night; go safe, without offering the feeling that you are afraid; take taxis at night; try not to walk alone when it is dark ... I insist that my perception is that it is exaggerated a little. The funny thing is that all those who say that they live the most at night in the city are those who talk the least about insecurity. In fact, all violent robberies have happened to others. Maybe fear is inside; a kind of evil from Africa.

With this post I end my security theme, unless the urgent news requires new comments, and announcement that I will explain in my next posts when a flat costs here (the World Cup is bursting prices); the wonderful beaches of the city; the views and the brutal sunset from Lion´s Head; how terribly pija his physiognomy is in the white zone (could be nestled in the middle of any elite country in Europe) and, especially, my more than possible entrance to a township, on Sunday, with a Valencian photographer that I have met here. We will enter with people from the same township, what will serve as a safe-conduct. The city is literally split in two: rich blacks and whites on one side; big black mass on the other.

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Comments (5)

  • Juancho

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    Hey, Have you asked the guy on the map of the danger zones how about going to a township on sunday? I think you should tell him, that he lends you a safe bazooka. The pole thing better avoid it, I've heard of blacks always having them longer… !City, Oh my God, Xavier!

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  • Xavier

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    In the end I go to the township next Saturday. I'll tell you, if I arrive…

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  • TO LA

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    I can not send you a gun and bazoka but a dart with a lot of pointed tip if (that we will be posh but we know how to defend ourselves against the thugs). It says «T» who is by my side, that the code word is S.O.S. Besos.

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  • mesquite10

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    without intending to discredit the author of the article, I feel totally disagree with him. From what I see the comment wrote it in the 2010, x what I do not know the situation of the city of then and in no case I am going to question for what he described. However on the dates that I find myself 05/2016 reality is very different or at least it is my experience, who is as respectable or criticizable as any other.

    When I went to an English academy to request an intensive course and that the objective was to improve the level to be able to find a job in an international cooperation company, I was strongly recommended the Cape Town course.

    I have traveled a lot and the insecurity that now, 05/2016 I have not perceived it in any of the countries I have visited, including downtown Lima, where i was 4 months as a volunteer in a foster home, high risk area, as well as the bateyes of the Dominican Republic.

    Since you land at the airport you are approached with innumerable messages that you be careful in everything you do….

    The unemployment rate is 25% so you can see numerous people of color sleeping in parks, streets, walking down the street without direction, drunk.

    I have photos that testify and on the famous long street at 14:00 pm I couldn't walk ten meters in a row without being approached by a homeless man asking me for alms. I think things have changed a bit.

    Incomprehensibly I see that they are promoting trips to Cape Town, with the risk that this entails, If you go, from the airport to the hotel, of the hotel, to the tourist destination…brilliant, but if you're going to spend a season here….. from my point of view totally inadvisable…..

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  • Javier Brandoli

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    Hello mesquite 10, nothing to object to your comment: perceptions, dangers, fears or experiences are their own… I lived in Cape Town in 2010 and 2011 and I came back in 2015. Of 2012 a 2015 I did it in Maputo, a 100 km from the border with South Africa, country I went to Joburg once a month, Nelspruit or Pretoria. I touch myself, also for my journalistic work, tour the entire country, desde Durban a Uppington. In these five years of experience there, I, I did not have a single problem, none! That means that South Africa is safe as Spain.? Absolutely not. But in my experience and in my opinion, most of their violence is located in townships, of course you have to have an eye (as in most of the globe outside rich countries, I now live in Mexico) and you always had the highest guard, especially at night, but if I didn't count that I traveled the country almost entirely, that I moved with a certain freedom alibi by common sense, certainly less freedom than he would have in Madrid, and nothing ever happened to me… I would be being unfair and would contribute to what I wean that is to always be speaking and inciting fears and problems. If in May 2016 the city is in chaos, I cannot assure you because I am not, but I have many friends who have lived there for years and none of them tell me. I, course, I would live there again without problem knowing that I am going to a place with a lot of poverty, with delinquency and with precautions to take. Greetings and, in any case, thank you for your comment that is as valid as mine and is based on your experience.

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