Couple suing Google Maps after it sent them to a notorious crime hotspot where they were brutally attacked and robbed at gunpoint::A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit against Google Maps for allegedly navigating them to a notorious South African crime neighborhood where tourists are left ‘injured, maimed or dead.’
I frequented Cape Town and Johannesburg doing research, that also included going into black townships to chat with people. I myself had an escort of 15 huge guys with guns and still had all sorts of problems around Nyanga including a shoot out over me recording video. Would never walk or drive around there on my own, I saw so many tourists and (white) locals being targeted, attacked and beaten on the street. There’s a reason everyone lives in highly secure compounds. You should know this before going to SA. The most beautiful place, best food on the planet, but you may die for it.
It’s fine if you stick to the good areas and always be aware of your surroundings.
For people worried about finding the “good areas”, it’s not that tough. We stayed at a Hilton and it was super affordable to use their concierge service to get us a safe driver. He was personable and took us where we needed to go, and explained the safe and unsafe neighborhoods… Though we weren’t planning on doing any walking around randomly or anything. By affordable I mean they only charged like $50 for this guy to drive us for a few hours and wait in the car while we did our sightseeing. We gave a good tip at the end and he was very happy.
South Africa is beautiful and if you can afford to get there, you can probably afford to use this kind of service to be there safely.
50 sounds like a steal for a handful of hours and a local that knows what’s up.
