Question for expats from South Africa

[CarverFan]

Just wondering if you feel safer in Bs As than you did back home...I'm considering a move from Buenos Aires to Cape Town. The one thing putting me off is the high crime rate there, although I've been a victim of crime here too.
Any thoughts on this from those who have lived there? Thanks!

 

[TheBigDaddy]

I am not from South Africa, but I have lived in both places and I have many friends from there.

I can tell you Buenos Aires is 100 million, trillion, billion times safer than South Africa, period.

You will probably get a lot of people refuting this and attacking me, telling you how dangerous it is here, etc etc, just because of the nature of this board. The pure reality there is no comparison Buenos Aires is so much safer.

 

[CarverFan]

Hmm, I glanced at your posts and you say you were robbed at gunpoint here....and you still think it's safer?

 

[TheBigDaddy]

Yeah, I was robbed at gun point in La Boca, at 4am, speaking english loudly in the street

So it was my fault really.

That happened 4 years ago. Since then I have started using common sense and never had a problem since, that proves to me how safe BA is. I have been walking home after midnight basically every weekend for the past 4 years, now days I just dont do it in la boca, and I dont call attention to myself by talking loudly in english. I keep my head down

 

[TomAtAlki]

Three years ago we met a South African couple in Cafayete buying a lot in the gated community next to the Estancia hotel, as an escape for when "things turn really bad". They flew in from SA, bought 2 lots, flew out the next day.
Nancy

 

[davonz]

I have lived in capetown and went to school there. I would say capetown/south africa is far more violent then BSAS/ARG - with alot more killings... i have yet to hear of shootouts at supermarkets or all the clients of a cafe being robbed at gun point in BSAS, however i know alot more people in BSAS who have been victims of crime, been robbed etc, and myself - i have been pickpocketed in BSAS, and had people trying to steal my bags at bus stations, but nothing ever happened to me in capetown, south africa or africa for that matter.

 

[CarverFan]

Davonz, there is violent crime here too. One of the baexpat members Davidglen77 posted a youtube video link to the armed robbery that took place at his store...did you personally know anyone in Cape Town who was a victim of violent crime?

 

[Ries]

I had a friend from South Africa visit me this summer in the USA, and he casually mentioned how in his Joburg house, he keeps a glock under the pillow and an AR15 by the side of the bed, and how he had used them both to "repel boarders".
He mostly lives in a smaller town on the coast now...
he showed me pictures of that house- electric gates, 8 foot walls, and, of course, he still keeps loaded firearms in the house, but he considers it much safer.

now maybe he was being theatrical, about the part where he had had to shoot out the windows to deter home invasions, but I sure got the impression that everyday life in South Africa was a world of difference from watching out for pickpockets on the Subte.

 

[PhilipDT]

Yeah, I was robbed at gun point in La Boca, at 4am, speaking english loudly in the street

So it was my fault really.

Getting robbed is never your fault.

 

[2GuysInPM]

When it comes to homicides, BA does not even make this 2011 list of top 50 most violent cities in the world; while Cape Town (#34) and 3 other S.A. cities do. That's not to say that petty crime, robberies, assaults other crimes don't occur here at a significant level, but they don't result in as many murders as they do in other countries.

It's worth noting from the list below that 40 out of the 50 are in LATAM countries, with the rest in USA, South Africa, Iraq, and Jamaica.

Complete report (Spanish)