I was robbed in Johannesburg, South Africa
On May 08,
2007, I was robbed in downtown Johannesburg,
South Africa. This was the second time I got robbed in
Africa.
Fortunately, I didn’t get hurt at all. Earlier this year on February 20, I was
robbed in Tanzania
national park and that was an accident.
It was once in a million chances.
However, this time it was totally due to my stupidity. I was too bold to walk alone in the
downtown Johannesburg. I always had this idea: During the day time, if the local people
can walk on the street, it should be OK with me too. But this doesn’t work in Johannesburg. I was wrong.
At around
16:00, after I finished visiting the Johannesburg
Art Museum, I was walking
back to the main station where I could catch a taxi back to the
backpackers. I passed a market
where you could find hundreds of venders and local people on the street. All of a sudden, I was strangled by
someone. Two other men began to
search my pockets in front of me.
By natural response I wanted to fight back. One guy pointed a long knife in front of
my belly. Without a thought, I
surrendered. I knew these people
could stab me without any hesitation.
Then I fainted.
I couldn’t
remember how long it took. It was a
cool breeze that woke me up. I
found myself lying on the street. I
managed to stand up. There were
tens of eyes watching me. They
didn’t offer me any help, not even asked if I was alright. What kind of people were they? I checked myself. No wound, no
hurt. But my daypack and wallet
were gone. My passport was in the
daypack. Damn! I might not able to go to Madagascar
without the passport. I began to
walk towards the main stations.
Just within 30 meters from the robbery scene, there were three policemen
with their bullet proof vest on. I
told them about the robbery. It
seemed liked they didn’t care. They
didn’t even chase the robbers.
Maybe robberies happened too often and they became numb. One of them pointed at a big building
around the corner and said the police station was there. I asked them to take me there but no one
seemed want to do that.
The police
station was on the 5th floor.
There were 3 to 4 police on duty and it was a policewoman who handled my
case. I lost a camera (Lumix), 1,700 Rand cash (about US250), one credit card, my
passport and some miscellaneous items.
It was quite a pity to lose the passport as there were so many entry and
exit stamps from different countries.
In addition, it ruined my schedule as I had no passport to travel
anywhere. As I didn’t get hurt, it
should consider as the luckiest thing.
In the beginning the policewoman didn’t want to open a case. She just wanted to give me an
affidavit. I insisted she should
open a case. At least they knew
whom to return to if they found something, although the chance was very minimum. At
last, she opened the case for me (Case Number: 523 / 0507).
Later, the
policeman told me that those robbers were mostly from Zimbabwe, Angola,
and Mozambique. After the apartheid government was over,
it was much easier for the people from neighboring countries coming to South Africa. They came here for jobs. However, most of them came here without
any education or skills, and the economy of South Africa was slow in recent
years. They ended up robbers on the
street. They were very clear on the
targets, only the tourists, the Whites, Indians and the Asians. So don’t walk in the downtown Johannesburg alone, even
during the daytime. There was a
statistics showing there was an average of 50 people got killed during
robberies each day in Johannesburg. It was even worst and more dangerous
than Baghdad, Iraq. The situation wouldn’t be better, it
would only be worse.