The fact is and you can check on this, the actual crime levels for gang related murder are five times higher in Cape Town, petty crime is quite low compared to other countries and in relation to London,New York or Moscow it is actually three to five times lower per 1000. Murder per 1000 is high but in reality the number is actually quite small. To think that there were according to the BBC and the metropolitan police over 100 000 violent incidents in London alone brings it into sharp focus. The whole of south Africa had just over 25000 incidents..

Not rocket science to work out the real truth. The fact that the South African media is owned wholesale by the Irish publishing company must have something to do with the slant in the local media - to get the local views you have to read trash media like the/die daily sun/son and in there you can get the local flava of the news.

I have regular contact with Chase Devonshire - a property & asset management company in exclusive London property markets and all the agents and negotiators they have, have their own way of looking at it.

I for one, when driving through London would never leave my car door unlocked and for that matter when taking a cab in London neither do the cabbies.

London has the worlds highest number of professional pickpockets so I would also never leave my valuables where they can be reached, its all about perception. I have seen more people being mugged in London than in any other city i the world yet it has a reputation for being safe.