BootsnAll Travel Community

Guys,

I am in the middle of an RTW and I am supposed to fly into Johannesburg on June 2nd for a two week stay. I've been reading about the recent violence and I'm trying to get an idea of the current conditions in South Africa. Anyone able to speak to how things are?

Thanks,
Ryan

I'm not in the country right now, but I'm following the disturbing news from there. Maybe someone in Johannesburg will correct me, but it appears that you should be fine, as long as you don't steal the jobs of the locals. Which I doubt you were going to anyway.

Anyway, Johannesburg hasn't been a nice place to visit for many years. The current violence, however, takes place in areas where there are many refugees from South Africa's neighbouring countries and Nigeria. You probably weren't going there anyway. IF you had planned on doing a Soweto/township tour, this is maybe not the best time to go through with those plans.

The violence appears to be spreading to the townships of Cape Town as well. I still seriously doubt that the problems will affect the touristy parts of either city. Make sure you read the local newspapers so that you know what's going on, but chances are your visit will not be impacted by the unfortunate events.

Bjørn
http://bjornfree.com/

uspn summed it up pretty well... the situation in the main cities is calm, the violence is in the townships on the out skirts of the Joburg mainly! I live in Durban and feel very safe!!

Where are you planning on going in your two weeks... i wouldn't recommend Joburg with or with out violence!!!

i thought i'd keep everyone updated as to the situation in SA at the moment with regards to the Xenophobic attacks taking place! The situation is still very tense with attacks slowly spreading throughout SA... but the attacks are confined to informal settlements outside the major cities so as far as i'm concerned i still feel very safe and don't expect any trouble and neither should people wanting to visit SA, as long as you stay out of the troubled areas... the touristy areas are safe!

the lastest from IOL:
"The death toll of people murdered during the xenophobic attacks in Gauteng has reached 50, police said on Sunday.

Spokesman Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said there were no major attacks reported over the weekends.

"Police have put deaths at 50, arrests at 500 and 17 000 have been displaced."

On Saturday, some shacks were burnt in the Ramaphosa informal settlement but police managed to calm the situation down.

In Actonville, police also broke up a fight between a number of local residents and foreigners living in the community.

The tensions stem from the violent attacks that foreign nationals were subjected to since May 12.

The attacks spread to other provinces like Mpumalanga, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. - Sapa"

It's good to see that a large number of arrests have been made and the SA community is really getting behind these foreign nationals, with marches and rallies taking place all weekend!!