Travel Advisory

…not that any sentient human being should want to visit the continent, of course, but just in case you have to (business etc.), please note this little snippet put out by someone or other:

I don’t know what criteria were used — most likely, violent crimes per capita — but what strikes me most is the absence of Mogadishu from the list.  And as for 6 of the top 10 being in South Africa… ask me again why I left.


*Rustenburg is a town of over half a million people, northwest of Johannesburg on the way to the gambling mecca of Sun City.  In the early 1980s our band played a residency at another resort hotel nearby, and even back then we avoided the place.  It’s also the center of the platinum supply (over two-thirds of the world’s platinum is refined there).

Pietermaritzburg has the ironic nickname of “Sleepy Hollow” — clearly, that’s no longer the case — and it’s where New Wife used to live as a young schoolteacher.

Cape Town is generally regarded as the “safest” large city in Seffrica LOL.

Beautiful to look at;  but the closer you get, the worse it becomes.

Don’t get me started on Johannesburg.

3 comments

  1. It’s sad to see the decline in South Africa. A friend visits infrequently and gives me reports that are only slightly better than yours, but he is long retired and only visits the safer parts.

  2. I have had job projects in Lagos, Cape Town, and Nairobi. In Lagos any time I wanted to leave the hotel complex I had an armed military escort. They stayed with us till we were back at the hotel. I had no issues in Cape Town but we did have a driver provided by the company we were contracting for and he would take us anywhere we wanted to go. I had armed security any time I left the work site or hotel in Nairobi. This was 11 to 15 years ago and I am sure it has gotten worse. I also worked Addis Ababa where the hotel provided transportation to any where you wanted to go. When you were ready to go somewhere else or back to the hotel a call would get a car. It was supposedly the most expensive and nicest hotel in the country. On all of those jobs in Africa we took no days off and worked strait though putting in 70 to 80 hours a week. We only got paid for 60 hours but would take a week or two of wind down time in Europe or the Caribbean before the next job.

  3. Cape Town is the murder capital of the world but that’s mainly owing to its suburb Mitchell’s Plain being the drug capital of the world. Joburg is really not bad. Since some top politician’s car got wrecked by a pothole they’ve done something about it. Half of the traffic lights don’t work anymore. Piemburg is now definitely the very last outpost of the British Empire. Perhaps I should have got out when I had the chance but now I have hostages in the form of children grandchildren and greatgrandchildren and besides from what I read the USA is no place to send your kids to school anymore.

Comments are closed.