Johannesburg - Four British rugby fans on Saturday told how they were beaten up and robbed by armed thugs in South Africa shortly after their arrival on the same night that the Egyptian side in a key football tournament became the victims of thieves.
Brothers Michael, 57, and Peter Harriott, 58, and Simon 57, and John Murphy, 52, flew into Johannesburg on Thursday night for the British and Irish Lions tour.
In an interview published by the Saturday Star, the men said the robbers had followed them as they drove to a guesthouse in the plush northern Johannesburg suburb of Sandton where they were due to check in.
"A black Mercedes-Benz boxed us in and four men appeared with guns. They surrounded our car. They ordered us out of the car and told us to lie on the floor and remove our wallets and watches," Michael Harriott said.
He was punched in the nose when he tried to grab one of the robbers' guns, according to the report. "They threw me to the ground and, the next thing, one of the robbers got into our hired car, while the other three jumped in theirs. They sped off with our luggage."
That same night, several players from the Egyptian football team returned from their 1-0 victory over Italy at the Confederations Cup in Johannesburg to find that their hotel rooms had been ransacked. Team officials reported the theft of, among other things, foreign current to police.
The Saturday Star reported that five rooms at the players' hotel in Illovo, near Sandton, had been robbed and that thieves had made off with several thousand dollars. South Africa's reputation as a hotspot for petty and violent crime has left many question marks as it prepares to host the 2010 football World Cup. Authorities, however, say football fans will be safe.
Last week, one of the new stadiums built for the World Cup was attacked by armed robbers after an international rugby game. The robbery at the sports bar of the new Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in the southern city of Port Elizabeth took place on Tuesday afternoon, after a game between the British and Irish Lions and the provincial Southern Kings side.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHO SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE?
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no businesses being released, to put it mildly. The past week has been
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2 Opinion(s):
It appaers as if the thuggery is getting into full swing for 2010. This is beyond a joke. Secretly, i still want the 2010 to work, but their is no f*cking chance. Welcome to South Africa. Visitors to our golden shore must accept the possibility of being the victim of crime. Tourists are a major target because of their "it will never happen to me attitude" Guys, the truth is BEWARE. You have no idea how bad it is until you experience it for your self.
When visting SA, do not be a tourist, and do not trust anyone, especially a black man with a gun. Gun licenses are difficult to get in SA and therefore only outlaws have guns. These men are "lucky" to be alive, especially as one tried to grab Siphos gun. Bad move. Your life is worth more than your luggage, or in fact a trip to SA. Do not be naive, it is as bad as we are reporting to enlighten the arm chair sceptics. listen to the alarm bells. Jeremy Clarkson was wrong in his la-la-land report. Tourists beware!
The fact that security is a HUGE issue for Fifa as well as the govmunt is a tacit admission that crime in SA is unacceptably high, even by third world standards. Judging by the robbery last week, and now this mugging by what appear to be a slick bunch of thugs does not bode well for when things really get going. I am with Llewellyn Kriel on this one and hope for an epic fail and complete embarrasment to the ANC. Tourists have been warned, if you are a victim of crime in 2010, you were warned.
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