Many times – if we warn about the dangers of crime and violence – we are accused of being racist or right-wing “boers”.
Take the story below about a British woman who was repeatedly raped at gunpoint during a savage 14-hour ordeal. She is now fearing that she might have contracted HIV. Should the SA government take more responsibility to warn foreign visitors to SA? What more can we do to ensure the safety of our tourists while continuing to keep the image of our country in tact? If we warn too much, SA will not attract tourists, but if we do not give proper advice, more of this will continue to happen…
This shocking report below from the Mail online:
A British woman was repeatedly raped at gunpoint during a savage 14-hour ordeal after she and her boyfriend were kidnapped at a South African beautyspot.
Now she faces a nightmare wait to see if she has been infected with HIV in a country where Aids is rife.
The couple were blindfolded and bundled into their car by four thugs and driven for 200 miles.
The only stops were when the gang visited illegal drinking dens and when the 29-year-old woman was raped.
As the attackers got more drunk, they invited other drinkers from shanty town shebeens to come and taunt their two white victims trussed up in the back of the vehicle.
The men grew increasingly violent as the night wore on, stabbing the 26-year-old South African boyfriend in the leg and beating him repeatedly.
The couple were told that they would be driven over the border to Mozambique and their bodies dumped.
They escaped only because their attackers lost control of the car and it overturned. The tourists scrambled out of the wreckage and fled.
A passing motorist, who stopped to help after seeing the crash, was shot dead and his passenger wounded as the attackers tried to steal their car.
The rape victim, from Gloucestershire, has told friends she feels she is under ‘a death sentence’ from Aids.
She has been prescribed anti-Aids drugs. But it will be months before doctors can say if she has been infected.
The Foreign Office said yesterday it was reviewing advice to visitors to South Africa, and especially Mpumalanga province where the rape happened and where a British woman was shot dead in a robbery last month.
