Is carjacking really a huge problem in South Africa, as this Snopes article says it is? Is it something that most South Africans who own cars worry about?
It’s something you think about occasionally. It’s not something that occupies my mind every time I go for a drive, no. I would say that Snopes article is exaggerating quite a bit, at least as far as Cape Town goes. It might be worse in Johannesburg, I don’t know.
I do believe the Joburg situation is quite bad. I do quite a bit of business in Joburg and I estimate maybe 10% of my contacts (mostly the blacks I would note) have had a direct carjacking experience. That really is extraordinary. My driver never wishes to wait outside of secure parking areas.
Nevertheless, I am noticing that the Gov is laying on more police and that seems to be helping the psychology.
I’ve only ever worried about carjacking (we just call it “hijacking” here) once, and that was when driving in J’burg and stopping at a sign that warned that this was a high risk area. It’s not really something I ever think about in Cape Town, even though it does happen.
Is Johannesburg somewhere that a tourist from outside the country would likely be interested in going? If so, does carjacking happen in areas frequented by tourists? Or is it like the crime situation in a lot of US and European cities- most of the crime (other than pickpockets and the like) happens in places where tourists generally wouldn’t go?
Jo’burg is not a major tourist destination in itself, but it is a major commercial and transport hub. Many tourists might, for example, fly in to Jo’burg (the country’s largest airport is there) and rent a car there to drive to the game reserves. I don’t know the city well enough to say if the high-risk hijacking areas are places where tourists are likely to be.
Interesting. I would not have thought SA had very much climatic variation.
Capetown gets the Benguela current, as well as the Antarctic Circumpolar current, which combine to make it cooler than otherwise. Durban, which gets a warm current flowing down the East African coast tends to be about 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer.
Why would you think that? (I’m not criticising, I’m legitimately interested to know your reasoning.)
The western part of the country (including Cape Town) gets rain mostly in winter from Atlantic cold fronts, while the eastern part of the country (including Durban and Jo’burg) gets rain mostly in summer from thunderstorms. There’s also a significant climatic difference between the coastal plain where temperatures are moderated by the ocean, and the higher interior plateau where they are not.
…and then there’s the deserts…
…and the mountains…
Well, on the map it doesn’t look that big, and stretches west-to-east, all more or less on the same latitude. But, I’m viewing it in the context of Africa, which, being such a huge continent, obscures the fact that SA is about the same size as Colombia – which does not have a lot of climatic variation AFAIK.
Joburg is the business capital. I think most tourists go out to the game preserves our to the Cape. The carjackings at least if my contacts are any indication seem to be entirely locally focused, and I hazard the guess focused on the new middle class in the less secure areas (e.g. the “Townships” - mind you many townships are really quite nice and up-coming nowadays, so the image of the Apartheid township is out of date).
I get the impression the police put less effort there, and perhaps the lingering distrust of the apartheid era leads to less police recourse.
As a frequent business traveller to RSA I can’t report any issues at all myself.
There is quite a lot really, as there is substantial altitude driven variation as well as latitude differences (and continental versus oceanic driven climate).