The purpose of the following newspaper extracts is not to give the impression that South Africa is a crime-free country – we have indeed a crime crisis in this country. These articles do however give some perspective after articles in the overseas media reported that a world cup bloodbath awaits, or that crime will have an essential impact on most fans’ world cup experience.

All in all, Durban has been peaceful

Despite 100’s of thousands of people visiting Durban’s beachfront and fan park since the start of the World Cup, Durban police have reported that the area has been largely incident-free. There have been a few minor incidents however, that have put a damper one some World Cup fans’ experience.

3 incidents are mentioned in the article: 2 people were missing, but they were found (one being a 15 year old girl that ran away from home). There was a case of assault after two people fought over a parking bay.

Extracts from The Independent 19 June 2010

Majority of 18 World Cup-related court cases about petty crime

Tlali Tlali, spokesperson of the Department of Justice, told the Mail and Guardian on Wednesday that 19 cases had been brought before the 56 dedicated World Cup courts so far (between 11 and 16 June), with 8 convictions and 2 cases withdrawn.

110 magistrates, 260 prosecutors, 93 foreign language interpretersm 1140 court officials and 327 court orderlies have been assigned to the courts, which are open until 23:00 for seven days a week.

The court have resolved some high-profile cases speedily, such as the 15-year jail sentence handed down to two Zimbabweans within three days of their arrest in connection with the armed robbery of Spanish and Portugese journalists at a Magaliesburg lodge.

The majority of the cases before the courts involve petty theft and, in one case, possession of dagga.

Extracts from Mail and Guardian 18-24 June 2010

In another article in the media, it was reported that there were no crime incidents related to the world cup in Polokwane.