More from my new best friend, Lancelot.
39 crime incidents during Confederations Cup 2009
Tuesday, 30 June 2009 18:26
According to Deputy Commissioner Pruis, approximately 600 000 people attended the sixteen matches (during Confederations Cup 2009)
"During this period, only 39 cases of criminal conduct were reported, which could be directly linked to a stadium or the immediate vicinity of a stadium while people were entering or exiting or going back to their hotel rooms," he said.
He said the majority of cases recorded during the Confederations Cup were theft, especially of cell phones, with five robberies, mugging of wallets, one case of reckless driving, two more of corruption, one incident of using counterfeit money and one case of assault.
2003 Cricket World Cup and Crime
Sunday, 22 June 2008 14:09
A report was compiled after the 2003 Cricket World Cup. I quote: "Foreigners were generally very satisfied with the event and South Africa. Crime reported was at insignificant levels. 3% of visitors experienced an incident of crime whilst here. However, 99% of visitors (94% of those affected) said they would return again. Overall, safety and security - which were the foreigners' number one concern before they arrived here - showed the biggest improvement in rating from before to after the event." 99% of the visitors to the World Cup also said they will recommend South Africa to other people (Source).
Compare above-mentioned with, for example, Australia: According to the Australian Institute for Criminology, just over 2% of tourists were victims of crime in Australia in 2005 - Despite that, 94% of overseas people regard Australia as a safe travel destination! The Institute also mentioned that 158 Australian tourists were killed in foreign countries between 1995 and 2003 at a rate of 5.8 per million. Not a single Australian was killed in South Africa during that time. 93 027 tourists from Australia and New Zealand visited South Africa in 2004 alone (Source)
The scale of the cricket world cup is however a lot smaller than the expected scale of the 2010 soccer world cup. More information regarding the scale of the cricket world cup will follow soon.
11 comments:
Our sporting events have always gone done well. During England's last tour the Barmy Army only reported three muggings at knife point at post match proceedings. Not bad considering the numbers. (according to BBC radio Four)
I does not really make sense to rob a foreigner in such a public area. Much easier and more lucrative to rob a local after Friday pay day down on the rank.
These totsies care nothing about political retribution for past colonial wrongs. That's just a tactic politicians use when they want to manipulate an outcome.
Rubbish. 3 muggins at knife point compared to our normal levels of tourist safety are terrible. Nice attempt to slip that in as "not bad". Tourists hardly ever experience such traumatic experiences in South Africa and 3 for a group of 30 000 is well above the average.
How am I attempting to slip that in as "not bad"? 3 in “30 000“ is what 0.1%? That sounds quite low to me. Despite your blind optimism, tourist crime does happen in South Africa just like it happens everywhere else and 0.1% is not something to be ashamed of.
According to Tourist South Africa's latest available Annual report 84% of tourists reported no negative experiences. 12% mentioned issues of general safety and personnel safety as negative experiences (personnel safety relating to crime such as theft, robbery etc.) We have about 12 million visitors annually so that's 1440000 negative reports of general and personnel safety if worked out crudely on the report stats (which is ridiculous on course).
….but when Paul Burnam comes on Radio 4 PROMOTING the safety of this country in regards to the upcoming world cup, don't tell me I'm talking “rubbish” when I say he had THREE reported incidents of muggings on Barmy Army members during the recent tour. That's low but that's reality and reasonable people will respond to that figure as being encouraging rather than belittling them into thinking that we live in Cumbaya land.
Again you're misrepresenting facts. The stats I've seen done my airport departures surverys report as much as 98.5 percent of tourists reporting no crime. And when there was crime reported it must have been very very petty because 99% of people said they would gladly come back.
You're trying to imply as much as 12 % of tourists are "robbed" which is a very sinister sounding verb and brings up images of knives and guns in peoples minds. I have "robbed" once like this in manila (car jacked) and that's not quite the same as to the many times I've been "stolen from" in almost every other country I've visted (scams , things missing from hotel rooms , pic pocketed, bags lifted at restuarants etc). The gross majority of those 12 % you claim were victims of crime I suspect were victims of very petty crimes. I know this because the gross majority of South Africn tourists are return visitors.
Go on some anti South Africa forum somewhere. You will struggle to find someone hyper critical of South Africa who is/was a tourist here. Quite the opossite. When the subject comes up you will always always see people who have visited here rubishing the scaremongers and reporting having a great time and feeling entirely safe.
And you know what...for fuck sakes. South Afric is perectly freaking safe to travel in relative to just about anywhere. So lose the hype and drama.
OK... I think we basically feel the same way about the reality of tourist crime. However it seem to me that you are incapable of accepting that ANY crime happens. Sure, you may have written somewhere that a tiny percentage of tourists are victims but judging by your response to my only claim (that 3 Barmy Army were mugged at knife point) it seems you have issues transcending those figures into reality.
I think that the best way to encourage tourists to this country is by being brutally honest about the situation. That way they can see for themselves that our situation (for tourists) is no worse than theirs.
There is this perception our there that 2010 will be some sort of bloodbath. You know and I know that this is not true. In fact it is a ridiculous claim but not being honest about actual tourist crime stats only serves to perpetuate this myth.
Here is an example: SAPS do not record or publish tourist crime stats. As a result right wing Nazi's are free to encourage wild speculation and propagate the irrelevant "50 murder a day" fiasco.
On the other hand they have sites like yours making bold challenges about low tourist crime rates and making , I would say, unfounded comparisons with countries like Australia. A bit devious on your part as you know that without access to "credible" data supplied by SAPS, you can't be proven wrong.
....and who are they going to believe, you or them? When it comes to personal safety they might just not take a chance.
So what is my point. Basically I enjoy your site and encorage the message but when you blow people out of the water for reporting a 0.1% crime rate(which should be an encoragment for tourist) for a sporting event you loose your credablity and that's a shame.
"Again you're misrepresenting facts. The stats I've seen done my airport departures surverys report as much as 98.5 percent of tourists reporting no crime. And when there was crime reported it must have been very very petty because 99% of people said they would gladly come back.
You're trying to imply as much as 12 % of tourists are "robbed" which is a very sinister sounding verb and brings up images of knives and guns in peoples minds."
I'm sorry if that's the way it sounded but that was not what I intended. I was trying to point out that given these facts reported by South African Tourism (which are the closest I can come to any official figures)it seems absurd that you would rubbish my claim of 0.1%.
Let me be clear about my position. I, in no way, am reporting a 12% robbery rate amongst tourists. I would like to give as accurate a figure as I can about real tourist crime in SA in the hopes that sensible people can come to their own conclusions about our beautiful country.
Rooster, "reported" crimes is not the same as "crimes". It's well known that a vast number of crimes are not reported (because, really, what's the point?).
I hardly report crime. Every time my car is broken into, my insurance premiums go up after it's been reported. So I don't bother going to the cops.
Lots of crimes in the poorer / gang areas aren't reported.
Etc.
Talking about anti-South African sites, did you know that every single one of them links back to Arthur Kemp?
If you look at the profiles of contributors to I Luv SA, for example, you will find links to Arthur Kemp's rubbish history book, March of the Titans.
You can't see profiles of contributors on South Africa Sucks, but they also link to Arthur Kemp and are great believers in what he preaches.
All of these bloggers are Boers in the sense of Boers who call themselves a distinct nation separate from Afrikaners. They pretend to be pro-Zionist - I say pretend, because none of them are Jewish, but they are all vehemently anti-Christian.
The anti-Christian stance fits in with the Boers who want to be separate from Afrikaners, because this particular sect believes that the Christian god is a fallen god and that the real true god is the Boer god.
It's hard to work out why they are so sympathetic to Jews. Maybe they think Israel will help the chosen Boers to wipe out everyone else in South Africa. Very weird stuff, but then sects always are.
They probably aren't even expats. Expats don't have the time to blog all day. They're members of the Boeremag, a bunch of terrorists right here in South Africa. Some of them were arrested in 2002 for acts of terrorism in Soweto and Bronkhorstspruit. Arthur Kemp is allegedly in the UK in hiding.
Talking about anti-South African sites, did you know that every single one of them links back to Arthur Kemp?
If you look at the profiles of contributors to I Luv SA, for example, you will find links to Arthur Kemp's rubbish history book, March of the Titans.
You can't see profiles of contributors on South Africa Sucks, but they also link to Arthur Kemp and are great believers in what he preaches.
All of these bloggers are Boers in the sense of Boers who call themselves a distinct nation separate from Afrikaners. They pretend to be pro-Zionist - I say pretend, because none of them are Jewish, but they are all vehemently anti-Christian.
The anti-Christian stance fits in with the Boers who want to be separate from Afrikaners, because this particular sect believes that the Christian god is a fallen god and that the real true god is the Boer god.
It's hard to work out why they are so sympathetic to Jews. Maybe they think Israel will help the chosen Boers to wipe out everyone else in South Africa. Very weird stuff, but then sects always are.
They probably aren't even expats. Expats don't have the time to blog all day. They're members of the Boeremag, a bunch of terrorists right here in South Africa. Some of them were arrested in 2002 for acts of terrorism in Soweto and Bronkhorstspruit. Arthur Kemp is allegedly in the UK in hiding.
-------------
Interesting. You're not far wrong actually. Email me if you want to exhange inside info. Bovinerebel@hotmail.com
Its insane the hysterical way some South Africans think every single tourist is going to be robbed raped and triple killed,completely disregarding past history of SA holding countless events/hosting millions of tourists each year and somehow,the overwhelming majority of said tourists managing to return home happy and undead.
Maybe when the WC is over and they are proved wrong they will flap their paranoid little mouths to unsuspecting foreigners a little less as they are aware they can't fool them anymore.
The 600 000 - but isn't cricket mainly a white sports, attended by whites, and soccer black? WC2010 millions of blacks will attend the games, not just a few thousands.
Post a Comment