I never thought of South Africa

[arnaud]

Originally Posted by Jacobus (Jake)

Guys

It's sad that we have to debate which country has the highest crime rate. It is as though we are proud to have the highest rating.

South Africa has a moratorium on the publication of crime statsistics so the numbers are skewed.

In my familly of 7, my sister-in-law (36) was gang raped and strangled to death with an electric cable in her home in Stellenbosch not far from Capetown, by three men who at the time were out on parole for a similar offence. My family and I were held at gunpoint in our own home in Pretoria, by four armed gunmen (one is an active member of the SA defence force) who loaded all our valuables in and drove off in our cars. These thugs wwere never caught. The incidents occured about 6 weeks apart.

It is like buying a red car. Onse you own one you spot all other red cars. Well just about everey second person I met after our incident had a similar experience. Some were not lucky enough as we were to survive to tell the story.

Anyway, we are here in Australia now and love it. We need to help Australians appreciate what they have. Rececnt news reports show how quickly things can change.

Any comments?

Cheers
Jake

This is your story. Others will tell you nothing happened to them in South Africa.
Please enjoy Australia and help Australians appreciate what they have. It is your freedom to choose another country. Make a difference, and let others make a difference in SA

[Darko]

arnaud, my thoughts and best wishes go out to you. It is truly horrible.

[topcat83]

Originally Posted by rem

...I am on this forum ços I have been selected to apply for immigration to NZ and wants to find-out about NZ. I must say that I am leaving SA with a great deal of reluctance. I have to leave because of the high-tech nature of my work which means that I need to find more challenges.

Hi- I'm just peeking in from the NZ forum.

I know nothing about SA high-tech companies, but having worked in IT in NZ for the last 3 years I must ask - do you know for certain that NZ has more opportunities in this field? I've found NZ to be a tad behind other countries like the UK....

As a matter of fact, having gone through the discussion on NZ forum, I doubt that leaving SA is a good idea. For instance in terms of crime, I understand that there were about 150000 burglaries in NZ last year, in a population of 4 million. Per-capita SA is nothing near that.

I can't argue the figures 'cos I don't know if they're true or not. All I can do is tell you what my (now 20 year old) son says.

He grew up in North-West London, UK - not the best of areas, but certainly not one of the worse. While a teenager he was a victim of crime (muggings) while out with his friends a number of times. His opinion of Auckland is 'yes, there are some problems, but compared to London they are a on a completely different (lesser) scale.'

Generally, outside of certain communities (these tend to be the 'low decile' areas) which have some gang problems then violent crime in particular is very low.

Driving from Cape Town to J'burg ? That will be a matter of choice. I doubt that statistically, it is less safe than driving between London and Manchester.

....I can't think of any 'criminal' situation I'd worry about on the roads between London and Manchester - just the number of cars. I've become too used to NZ empty roads (LOL!)