As if the rampant crime rate didn't deter them, holiday home owners in South Africa are now being terrorised by baboons. Well, actiually the article says the number of attacks have calmed down a bit recently because a leopard has come to stay. Sign me up for two!


http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/0...n.ap/index.html

Have added this to my "Another Property Enron" Thread

In my hometown (also in South Africa), small dogs are routinely nabbed by the resident Crowned Eagles. My sister's friends Jack Russell was swooped upon and then dropped from a height of 15 ft into a swimming pool! His back is now badly scarred and, unsurprisingly, refuses to set foot outside.

when you said "Holiday home hotspot terrorised by baboons "
i thought you meant the isle of man TT races.

Funny........

I think there is a direct correlation between South Africa (my homeland) and England.....

In SA you get terrorized by baboons in England it is by the Chavs,

You can say what you like about the crime and baboons, SA certainly offers a better quality of life than the UK if you have a decent job, don't knock somewhere before you have experienced it for yourself!

I'm astonished that South Africans are completely oblivious to the crime. Johannesburg has one of the highest murder rates in the world.
The goverment uses a very cosy "optimisation" of crime statistics, since reviewing the moratorium on crime statistics.
So you only get hi-jacked in Johannesburg once a year instead of 3 times a year.

Don't get me wrong, I think Cape Town is fantastic and the garden route is beautiful,
but at least the chavs in the UK aren't all running around carrying AK47's.

If you're in Cape Town you're probably quite safe, just don't wander around looking like a tourist or alone late at night (the same as you would on most foreign holidays).

Stay away from the townships and don't bother with Johannesburg.

I know a fair few south africans and they all say it's not too bad if you make sure you lock your windows, car doors etc etc. Thing is when they talk about locking windows they mean making sure the iron bars are locked and the reinforced door is bolted correctly.

There are plenty of No-Go area's, you could say the same about here but I think it's a very different type of no-go.

I'm not saying it's a bad place, but it's hardly paradise in the full sense of the word.

And to counter the point about having a better quality of life if you have a good job, why then is it that I've worked with loads of South Africans who all say the moved over here because they couldn't get a job.

Nobody is denying that crime is bad, the statistics however are very misleading because most of the crime happens in the old 'township areas' and not in the urban suburbs........

I have been robbed and mugged twice in London in the last three years, never happened once in the 23 years I lived in SA!

On the job front you are quite correct, rather difficult at the moment which is why there are so many South Africans here, things will change though and there will be a massive exodus back to the land of milk & honey.... The UK is a fantastic plays for the meantime though, good jobs, great travelling and saving lots of pounds to convert back to rands in a few years.

I bet you don't find to many South Africans that don't miss there homeland and want to move back one day..... says it all really!

I have! My sister lives in Botswana and has done so for the last 13 years. Been to both countries several times. In Botsw the crime is now coming north from SA (family go there on hols often but wouldn't consider living there as it would mean the kids couldn't go outside the home/garden without supervision) and also south from Zimbabwe, so Botswana crime rates are soaring. people next door got robbed at gunpoint in their homes and two months ago, someone tried to carjack my sis and husband - again with gun. They told them to b***r off - lucky not to get shot if you ask me. Now they are heading off, though not back to the UK. I wonder why???

Yes it does,

"I'm happy to leave my country of birth behind to rot while I go and make a fortune, I'll come back either when somebody has sorted it, or when I have made enough bucks to buy a large house with a big wall."

"I'm happy to leave my country of birth behind to rot while I go and make a fortune, I'll come back either when somebody has sorted it, or when I have made enough bucks to buy a large house with a big wall."

And don't forget the electric fence, rotweilers, 24 hour surveilance, panic room, arsnal of wepons......... still a lovely place though!

Come on guys don't give it all that sob story about leaving your country to rot ........ half the people on this forum want to move abroad to better shores.... it's a global world now you can move about really easily, doesn't meen you don't love your place of birth though!

Where are they moving to, if you don't mind me asking Antsy? Somewhere nice?

New Zealand - and they want to buy a house. I have issued a stern warning to wait a bit.

Well I suppose yesterdays attcks put the crime wave in SA into perspective!

A ) that is a very tasteless comment

B ) how many people in the UK died as a result of the attacks? 50.

how many people die because of violent crime in South Africa every year? 10,499

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/...lent_deaths.php

I sincerely apologize if I caused offence, that was never the intention, I was just trying to say that after having a lot of experience in living and working in both countries I think at the moment I would feel safer living and working in the suburbs of Cape Town rather than living in the suburbs of London and travelling on the tube to work in the West End like I do.......

However, as cruel as it may be to say, life has to go on....... I did however feel that it added to the thread, the threat of mass scale terroism is not really a threat in South Africa - however as you correctly pointed out the country still has a crime proble, just do me one favour, be very careful how you interpret those statistics showing death rates, most of them will be happening in small pockets of an extremely large country..........

I've just arrived back from a brilliant holiday in SA. Ironically I was in Coffee Bay in the Transkei when I heard about the London bombing. I'd been warned not to go to Transkei by some SA friends but luckily other friends told me it would be fine, just drive carefully and not at night - it was fantastic. Generally we felt safe although of course we were more security conscious than we would be in the UK. Scariest part of the whole trip was going into central London on our return.

The SA property market interested me - after a few years of massive boom, it has cooled down but prices are still very high and everyone seemed to dismiss any suggestion of a crash. Could be because they are used to high inflation which in the past has meant that prices only fall in real terms, never nominally. Anyone got any ideas on the SA market? The economy seems to be doing well, lots of new buyers entering the market as the Black Economic Empowerment proceeds apace.

I nearly bought a flat in Muizenberg outside Cape Town last year, but chickened out because I was afraid of buying at the top of a boom - really wish I had though. I lost out there.

At last somebody adds comment after actually visiting the country before just slating it after only reading about it in a very one-sided British Press.

I think the SA property market is still on the way up, as you correctly say there is still a lot of overseas money flooding as well as the 'new' middle class becomming very rich very quickly.....

The economy is doing well and there is lots of dosh splashing about...... interest rates also historically low and looking to go lower

I am glad you had a good time out there, I wish more peolpe would go and see what it is all about