We were in Pretoria in August. That month, a baby, its mother and grandmother were shot to death and their car stolen; a man visited his wife in the hospital only to be "carjacked" and shot dead when he came back to the car park; a woman was critically wounded when she was shot in her car as she visited her fiance to discuss wedding plans for the weekend; and the homes of three Cabinet ministers were burgled.
The road from Pretoria to the Kruger Game Park -- one of the top tourist attractions in the country -- has many signs warning drivers, in the interests of their own safety, not to stop on the roadway. Some signs even identify particular areas as "carjacking hot spots." (One wonders why the police then don't do something about the well-known hot spots.) Even during the daytime, in the vicinity of the Union Building, which is the seat of presidential power, women are warned against wandering around by themselves with their handbags visible.
It would appear that in neighboring Zimbabwe, where I once was able to walk by myself from the city center to my hotel around midnight without worrying about personal safety, people now fear the police even more than ordinary crime. By contrast, in South Africa the citizens do not fear their police but are increasingly afraid of their fellow citizens. The ultimate irony is that the one place we felt the safest with respect to personal security was in the Kruger Game Park, surrounded by animals -- including lions and leopards -- in their natural wild habitat.