World Cup travelers to crime-hit South Africa spending 4000 rands/day on bodyguards

JOHANNESBURG - Spooked by South Africa’s crime rate, tourists and foreign businessmen visiting the country ahead of the football World Cup are spending 2000 to 4000 rands a day on bodyguards.

According to reports, depending on the level of risk, the clients can also get a man or a woman carrying a nine-millimetre gun.

“We have brought in 45 contractors who are being assigned to different projects, but we might have to recruit more,” Sport24 quoted Kyle Condon, owner of D and K Management Consultants, as saying.

“We have increased our revenues and our turnover by about three-fold thanks to the World Cup,” he added.

Condon said that many of the bodyguards are former soldiers or police, and they are trained in marksmanship, emergency driving, first-aid and fastidious planning.

“It’s not about jumping in front of bullets. That’s for movies with Kevin Costner. What we do: we plan your life for you during your stay. We are a kind of personal assistant,” Condon said.

South Africa has one of the world’s highest crime rates, with an average 50 killings a day.

Talking about the state of affairs in South Africa, Gareth Newham, a researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, said: “Crime in South Africa generally increased from 1994 to 2003-2004.

“Since then crime has dropped by 24 percent, but certain categories of crime have increased like house robberies, business robberies and car hijacking, and those crimes cause a lot of fear,” he added. (ANI)