I find it a bit ironic that almost every poster prior to me said to avoid downtown and stay in the tourist areas such as Sandton (boring). I said I went to downtown Johannesburg, walked around there, had no problems (was the only tourist I saw, btw), but had a driver who was nervous, and I had no problems despite being in areas where a cops were killed in a shoot-out the next day and I'm overstating?


I probably shouldn't have put in what I observed in Hermanus as that seemed to confuse what I was really addressing, which was being in downtown Johannesburg. I self-drove everywhere but Johannesburg and certainly stopped at lights and saw no problems, but did notice homes were well guarded. I've had three different drivers in Johannesburg - none stopped at lights, unless it would have caused an accident. Only the one who got out of the vehicle because I insisted on walking places downtown was nervous - and I'm not talking about walking in places like Soweto and the Apartheid Museum, which are popular places on the tourist circuit (and well worth seeing).

Like it or not South Africa has a staggering level of crime (that doesn't mean it kept me from visiting where some of you have advised others not to go though). From Time Magazine May 20, 2008: "South Africa has some of the world's worst levels of violent crime, with 52 people murdered every 24 hours, for an annual murder rate of 43.1 per 100,000 people. Added to that each year are 200,000 robberies, 55,000 rapes, and half a million cases of assault and attempted murder." There were about 20K carjackings that year too.

Enjoy the place, but don't put blinders on!