Whether Sisulu or Cele like it or not, the message will go out that SA is not a safe country

Let the good news spread far and wide beyond our borders: Foreign tourists – South Africa is the safest place on earth! Just three of you have been murdered here since the glorious ANC government took power in 1994!

Extrapolating that piece of information from Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, you can conclude, then, that you are a lot safer in this country as a visitor from abroad than you would be as a local.

To make you feel even better, our national gumshoe, fedora-toting Minister of Police Bheki Cele, is on the case. Already, there has been a press conference. And there has been a visit to the site of the killing of German tourist Joerg Schnarr close to an entrance to the Kruger National Park.

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Even better, according to Sisulu, no other Germans had cancelled their proposed trips to South Africa. At least within the 24 hours before she uttered those words.

Whether Sisulu or Cele like it or not, the message will go out that this is not a safe country for visitors. We have one of the highest murder rates in the world and we are in the top tier of the world’s worst rapists. Cars are hijacked and stolen left, right and centre.

Anecdotally – which is often more believable than police crime statistics because of the vast number of crimes go unreported – crime seems to be getting worse. While it is undeniable that desperately poor people will turn to theft and robbery to survive, it is also true that gangs and criminal syndicates have virtual free reign.

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More than that, it is the inability of our police to tackle crime or bring perpetrators to book which has provided such fertile soil for the growth of crime. Do something about that and maybe tourists – and locals – would believe you.