Security and Soccer in the City of Gold

South Africa has become a country used to exceeding expectations. When the ANC came to power in 1994 many South Africans expected violent reprisals, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda did nothing to allay these fears and South Africans flocked in numbers to the greener pastures of Australia, but the massacre never came, the reprisals never occurred, the white-owned property was never confiscated by the government.

Then in 1994, in the build up to the Rugby World Cup, there was general pessimism again, many thought the event would be a disaster, South Africa, isolated from the world for so long and with an aged infrastructure, would not be able to handle the hundreds of thousands of visitors, it was said, and the high crime rate would lead to the deaths of every tourist who entered the country.

There was a muted sense of surprise then, when the World Cup went off without incident and an even greater sense of shock, followed quickly by elation, when South Africa had the audacity to win the World Cup as well. It occurred right here in Johannesburg and was celebrated by a cynical turned sentimental Johannesburg news media as the moment the new South Africa was born. Those were the heady days of nation building and reconciliation, a time when some South Africans dared to believe we weren’t a country of failures after all.

That optimism did not last though.

A high crime rate, reported and rumored incidents of corruption in government, civil unrest over a lack of service delivery, embarrassing statements by politicians and, lately, a vulnerable economy, have driven South Africans to be more morose than usual about upcoming events of which we should be proud – for instance, the FIFA World Cup.

An indication of South Africa’s general pessimism can be found in the run up to the event. When SA first won the bid, the media immediately became suspicious that the country would not be able to handle the huge influx of people who would come to the country for the tournament. We didn’t have the infrastructure or the stadium capacity. So expansion of airports, roads, public transport and stadiums got underway and we said that it would never be finished in time. Now that everything has been finished and the country is set to welcome the international community, those of us with a tendency to pessimism have latched on to the fact that the visitor influx may be less than what was initially thought, so now we can call the World Cup a flop, a failure, an anticlimax. And it’s the government’s fault, because they misled us and exaggerated the figures.

Pessimism is part of the national character. This is more apparent than ever in discussions about the crime rate, with Johannesburg a benchmark of the problem nationally.

Joburg is without doubt the most dangerous city in South Africa, and South Africa is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Many South Africans think that tourists are going to be slain in their hundreds and that those that do survive the gauntlet will leave with none of the worldly belongings with which they arrived. On a serious note, some have even gone so far as to suggest that any companies or government agencies promoting the country abroad are committing crimes against humanity because they’re encouraging tourists to come to a place in which they’ll be grievously harmed, or killed all together.

But how dangerous is the crime situation in real terms? South Africans are not usually inclined to drama, but when it comes to talking about the crime rate everyone becomes a drama-queen, making grand and sweeping statements such as that above. For a city like Johannesburg, what can we actually expect to see happening with regard to crime during the FIFA World Cup?

A survey conducted at O.R Tambo International Airport by the University of Stellenbosch’s Professors Sanette Ferreira and Ronnie Donaldson revealed that, of the 907 foreign tourists interviewed, 6% or 54 people became victims of some form of crime. This is just slightly higher the number of South Africans who are the victims of some form of crime each year (2.6 million out of a population of roughly 49 million). It is still an unacceptably high figure, but it hardly constitutes the media and public hysteria that so often accompanies narratives on the crime rate.

Tourists are generally more vulnerable because they do not know Johannesburg the way locals do, and because they’re on holiday there is a subconscious tendency to trust strangers, which can be dangerous in the wrong areas of the city. But South Africa’s, and indeed Johannesburg’s, crime situation has been publicized extensively enough that there can be no tourist who is unaware of the crime rate, and it is their responsibility to find out where the problem areas are. Generally speaking, they’re in the low-income parts of the city. The whole of Johannesburg is not a cesspit of crime and should not be considered as such.

It is also worth considering that crime in South Africa is an issue that has been taken into account by government in the build up to the World Cup, 44,000 police officers have been specifically trained to provide security during the event, $90 million worth of equipment has been purchased – everything from cars, boats and helicopters to bullet-proof vests, radios and guns.

The cynical among us will of course point out that $90 million could have been better spent on schools and hospitals, while still claiming that crime will be the downfall of the World Cup.

In every way the country is prepared, and so is Johannesburg, its undisputed powerhouse. This is the city through which most tourists will enter the country, and because of Constitution Hill, Soweto, the Apartheid Museum and other landmarks, as well as the new Soccer City Stadium, the city will be explored and enjoyed by a large number of those visitors.

Will they be victims of crime? Some of them unfortunately will be, mobile phones will be stolen, handbags might be swiped, some may be mugged, some, horrifically, may even be raped or killed. That is the reality, but the chances are not as great as one might imagine. They are very low, the vast majority of crime committed is theft.

This will undoubtedly embarrass the country, for every incidence of crime will be widely reported on during the World Cup, but encouragingly, most tourists who were victims of crime were planning on returning to South Africa and said they would recommend coming here (according to the University of Stellenbosch’s survey).

Another finding of the survey is also interesting, 51% of respondents had never been to South Africa before, and of that 51%, the vast majority had a more favorable opinion of SA upon leaving than the perception they’d had before they arrived.