Originally Posted by sperbonzo

My wife is from Durban, (she's Indian), and we go back every year for a few weeks.... and the crime there, (and in Jo'burg), is just CRAZY. Most of her family have been held up at gun point at some time, either in their homes, while being carjacked, or whatever. They live in nice areas with security and high electric fences, but they are still wary about who is around when they pull up to their gates at night, stopping at red lights at night when there are no other cars around, etc.... In January this year we were dropping off a friend in a lovely area at about midnight, and she was yelling at us not to stand outside after saying goodnight to her, just to get in the car and drive, before someone jumped us.

3 months ago my wife;s mother was with 14 other old indian women getting together to remember one of their dead husbands, and 4 guys with guns broke in to the house, and robbed all of them, in the middle of the afternoon. 3 weeks after that, her cousin, who lives in an apartment 2 blocks from the police station, had two guys stick a gun through her car window into her chest, and steal everything, including her car, right in the parking lot of the apartments.


yes, there are some overblown reports overseas, but don't kid yourselves. Whenever we have South Africans come to visit us in Miami, they are always shocked at how relaxed we can be about security and how much less fearful of violent crime we are here.



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