A view of Table Mountain from the deck of the MSC Opera

 

Cape Town crime-related quotes

Somalians attacked and murdered

 


Sibongile Somdaka
8 September 2006

"Gangsters are holding our communities to ransom. The much talked about feud between the two gangs in Cape Town's black townships - the Palestinians and the Soldiers - is a direct indication of that, especially in Nyanga, New Crossroads, Philippi and Langa. The abuse of drugs and other substances has reached alarming proportions." Sibongile Somdaka, chairman of the Azanian Youth Organisation in the Western Cape

New Zealand Foreign Ministry's Travel website
September 2006

"Crime is a serious issue throughout South Africa. Travellers should be vigilant at all times, especially at bus stations, airports (especially Johannesburg International Airport) and traffic lights as organised gangs are known to operate there...Cape Town visitors who go to Table Mountain should only go in groups to minimise the risk of attack. Those wishing to visit the townships should only do so as part of an organised tour by a reputable company."

James Ngculu
23 August 2006

"In our own view Tony didn't steal money. Tony was not found with his hands in any pie or till. He didn't declare a discount. In my own view, and I think in many of us, we are of the view that the court could have given a bit of leniency in the way in which the sentence was given," James Ngculu speaking outside Yengeni's Milnerton home in Cape Town...Yengeni was convicted of fraud related to the multi-billion rand arms deal after he accepted a discount on a luxury vehicle from one of the bidders.

Adam Alexander
22 August 2006

"In Cape Town, the world of the very rich and the world of the very poor – more reliant on each other than either would care to admit – continue their fragile co-existence. At one extreme, it is a world of wine-tasting, fine dining and Californian pretensions to a belief in spirituality. At the other extreme, a world of squatters' camps where daily horrors of necrophilia, child-rape, cannibalism, and a medieval belief in witchcraft merit little more than an occasional paragraph in the paper, simply because of their frequency."

Adam Alexander
22 August 2006

"Cape Town is still reeling from the murder of two young white males, both well-known actors, who were found naked in a park with bullet-holes in the backs of their heads, sending shock-waves through South Africa’s entertainment industry. Everything they had was stolen."

Adam Alexander
22 August 2006

"Cape Town – like New Orleans, like Madrid, like Dublin – is one of those places where hedonism is considered more a celebrated way of life than a dangerously amoral condition. But few cities in the world have as gigantic and glaring a gulf between rich and poor as Cape Town, or are nearly as violent – only Rio de Janeiro, perhaps. Or as sexy. There are so many modelling agencies in Cape Town that some of the streets are like cat-walks."

Barry Sergeant
18 August 2006

"In the Cape Flats and all around the country, it is often common knowledge amongst the community as to where the gang lords live, and what they do, when they do it, and how they do it. Crime has become institutionalised, with new generations knowing nothing else."

Barry Sergeant
18 August 2006

"It’s estimated, as a sampling, that there are at least 130 criminal gangs on the Cape Flats, with a combined membership of about 100 000."

Andrew
July 2006

"I had specific requirements and if anyone was offended by that, then I'm sorry". A Capetonian known only by the name Andrew, who advertised for a personal assistant, and masturbated in the nude whilst conducting a job interview with the applicant.

References

September 2006

New Zealand Foreign Ministry

28 August 2006

Cape's Somali community living in fear

22 August 2006

Can football save South Africa from its biggest threat?

18 August 2006

One summer, a million swallows

 

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