Drive with care

I’ve noticed that as the years go by, and no doubt because respect for authority generally seems to grow weaker, that drivers in the UK definitely jump red lights more commonly than they used to. I have to say that there is an even more advanced form of this behaviour in Cape Town. If, say, Brighton drivers are prepared to jump a red light 2 seconds after it has come on then here in Cape Town it would certainly be more like 5 seconds after the change that cars would still be charging through. Therefore I’ve learnt not to set off too quickly when the lights turn to green to give the drivers still coming through red the other way, time to pass. Driving is not bad in Cape Town it’s just more exciting. Mind you I once stopped at a red traffic light in Pakistan and was left isolated in the middle of the road as all the other cars simply sailed by apparently totally obliviousof the fact that the lights were against them.

We have taxis here in Cape Town which we would tend to call minibusses and they are very popular as a cheap way of getting around the city. But like taxi drivers everywhere they are definitely a law to themselves. Their most disconcerting habit is to suddenly pull away from the side of the road without any warning or any signal, straight in front of you. There is of course at this point a somewhat overwhelming desire to make one’s feelings known by either shouting or playing a symphony on the horn, however the Rough Guide rather warns one against this on the basis that the taxi driver is probably carrying a gun. This proves to be a great restraining force on one’s otherwise legitimate outrage.

Some car crime does however produce its lighter moments. The Cape Town Weekend Argus, which is definitely given to a somewhat  sensationalist style of reporting, informed us the other day that 2 women claimed to be in labour when they were pulled over for illegally driving in a designated bus lane. However both were given on the spot fines with the comment that one of them might have been in labour but the other one was definitely faking it. A lot of drivers were pulled over at much the same time, and 294 fined in one day, due to a special police operation in the area. 17 CCTV cameras should have been picking up offenders, but none of them are working as thieves have made off with the fibre optic cables! Several of those that the police pulled over became abusive with 2 women screaming and throwing items at the police!!

Things get more serious on the next page of the Argus as we read, ”Trial of suspected crocodile killers postponed.’ This is not what you might think. The alleged criminals are actually accused of  murdering someone by throwing them off a bridge into a crocodile infested river. Ummm - very South African - it wouldn’t happen in Sidcup.

Another eye catching caption in the same edition of the paper reads, ‘Non-knife bust enlargement seen as booby trap.’ I won’t comment on that one.

Of all the crime arenas in South Africa the one that seems most common and in a league of its own is the stealing of cell phones. One hears of this constantly and many members of Jubilee seem to have had their phones taken. In fact so many have been stolen that I should think by now everyone in South Africa must have at least 3 cell phones of their own - I can’t think why they bother to keep on taking them. My wife feels she is safe here as she has a Nokia cell phone which could almost be a museum piece and would have no street cred at all. Mind you even that is potentially dangerous as recently I heard of someone here who was mugged for his phone but because it was an old one the thieves beat him up for not having one that was more up to date!

I have never been in any place where I have seen so many people speaking on the phone when driving. Every day I see young mothers with a tribe of children in the car swing round sharp corners, the wheel in one hand and the other hand holding a phone to their ear.  Looking at other drivers on the road  you see a huge number of them speaking into their hand held phones. I observed to a Jubilee member the other day that obviously unlike in the UK it is clearly not illegal to drive and use a phone at the same time. “Oh yes it defintely is” he said!

So, as usual life in Cape Town has that extra and exciting edge about it and so if you are visiting this beautiful city, please drive with care!

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