Life in South Africa...

That may be true, but I've heard nothing good out of SA for a very long time. Everyone who can get out is getting out.

I did a two week cycling tour around Cape Town and the surrounding areas two years ago, had a fantastic time. A beautiful part of the world and didnt feel unsafe at all. There are no doubt some very dodgy parts though
 
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I grew up in SA, back in the late 80s, early 90s. Very different place now. Most of my family who lived there also left with many coming back to the UK. With some moving to Australia.

Car jacking and armed robbery are rife.
 
I grew up in SA, back in the late 80s, early 90s. Very different place now. Most of my family who lived there also left with many coming back to the UK. With some moving to Australia.

Car jacking and armed robbery are rife.

Same story here, I grew up during 90's there and it was great. I had an awesome childhood.

My whole family and a bunch of family friends(And their families) all moved back to either somewhere in EU or the UK. Few also ended up in Australia.

Makes me sad to see what the country has become....
 
I grew up there, and have been back a number of times (including getting married in Cape Town in 2018), and I certainly felt more on edge in general just being there, compared to the UK when stuff like that doesn't even cross my mind.
 
I guess the passenger was an affirmative action hire or something? Seems to be a complete dunce, big contrast with the driver who is more than earning his paycheck.

Dash cam:


Would have been neat if he'd been able to run a few of them over when they got out of the car.

Apparently in some areas in SA some houses have the bedroom and utilities inside a fortified and often metal caged area within the house, so that if there is a break-in they are safe from the intruders and can let them get on with it until it is safe to come out into the "outer house" again. Also doubles as a shelter in case of civil unrest. Terrifying stuff...

It's not necessarily as elaborate as it sounds, can be as simple as a locked metal gate in the upstairs landing so that if people do break into the house in the night (likely via a ground floor window) they at least can't torture/kill you and/or you have time to get your security company to respond.

There are accusations that some higher up in government who are supposed to be part of tackling it are complicit with organised crime.

That isn't too surprising, in fact, an ambush like this and seems like there is a high chance of an insider being involved.

How the SA police used to deal with hijacks:

 
Dash cam:

Did the dashcam run out of battery. Where is the rest of the video?

Also what's with people ******** on the passenger. Do you people expect him to hang out the window shooting back fast and furious style or something.
He did exactly what he needed to do. He readied the weapons and then shutup to avoid distracting the driver.
 
I guess the passenger was an affirmative action hire or something? Seems to be a complete dunce...

Are you for real with this comment? It's real life, not a Hollywood movie. What was he supposed to do? Be shooting back at them? You don't roll down your window that's made of bullet proof glass (which saved the driver here, allowing him to get them both to safety, and also the passenger later on) to then hopelessly open fire with an automatic weapon through traffic, whilst the vehicle is being thrown about all over the place, in the hope that you might get a lucky shot on those pursuing you, and potentially wounding innocent people driving along the same road. That's reckless and stupid. You sit there calmly and in a composed manner, you wait for the experienced person in the vehicle to give you instructions, and you help out as best you can by not doing something stupid to impede the person doing the driving and trying to get you both out of the situation that would otherwise end up with you dying. I cannot stress this enough. For most people in SA, this situation is certain death because these gangs don't leave people alive after anything. Even during a household burglary, generally the burglars break in and the first thing they do is find the occupants, and at the very best for them, just kill them before robbing the house. No exaggeration there whatsoever.

In this situation, he did exactly what he's supposed to do. I can't believe how many people think that he should be doing more. Rolling down a bullet proof glass window when you're being shot at is a stupid idea when it's that window that's protecting you from the bullets coming at you. He'd probably be dead if he'd have rolled the bullet proof window down to then wildly spray bullets aimlessly whilst being thrown around in a vehicle hurtling at crazy speed. You can see several times in the video how he's thrown around and he's able to mitigate some of that because he can see out the front window. Imagine looking backwards whilst leaning out of the window, trying to spray bullets at cars whilst you're also trying to aim through all that motion? That doesn't seem very sensible to me. And to top it off, toward the end of the video you can see how the passenger window had stopped a bullet near where the passengers head would be.

He picked up the gun when told to do so, checked it, loaded it, held it safely, stayed alert, looked for hazards, contacted for backup, and then to top it all off after all that, with adrenaline pumping because he probably thought he was going to die, handed the gun to the driver as soon as he needed it without being asked for it. I'd say he did his job perfectly and anyone that thinks he didn't seriously needs to get a grip.

On top of all of that, your quite honestly racist affirmative action comment is totally uncalled for given your complete misjudgement of his abilities and composure that would have most people absolutely soiling themselves and probably resulting in the death of both driver and passenger through actions that are quite simply unnecessary.

Make no mistake. Both the driver and the passenger are hardcore for coming out of this situation alive.

And just to clarify, I was born in South Africa in the 80s and lived there until I was 17, and have been back there several times over the years, and still have family and friends living over there. So I've experienced the problems first hand myself, and lived through things through my family and friends as well, so I know the country and the issues pretty well. I'm well aware of the government corruption. Of the Police corruption. Of how dangerous things are. My Dad was mugged in broad daylight outside a shop by someone brandishing razorblades. The head teacher at our school was hijacked and shot in the back of the head whilst stopped at some traffic lights. I've experienced attempted police bribery first-hand myself. But I've also experienced a lot of good things first-hand too so it's swings and roundabouts really. At the end of the day it's a beautiful country and if you are sensible it's ok. But it also has loads of issues and none of it should be taken lightly. People like these two trying to live their lives and make a living don't deserve to be put through what they experienced in the video, but sadly most that are able to do something about it in the Police force and government don't care past lining their own pockets.
 
I honestly didn't realise SA was such a dangerous mess of a country.

No amount of beauty or culture can make up for the rest of the day to day realities you outlined in that post, im sorry.
 
In this situation, he did exactly what he's supposed to do. I can't believe how many people think that he should be doing more. Rolling down a bullet proof glass window when you're being shot at is a stupid idea when it's that window that's protecting you from the bullets coming at you. He'd probably be dead if he'd have rolled the bullet proof window down to then wildly spray bullets aimlessly whilst being thrown around in a vehicle hurtling at crazy speed. You can see several times in the video how he's thrown around and he's able to mitigate some of that because he can see out the front window. Imagine looking backwards whilst leaning out of the window, trying to spray bullets at cars whilst you're also trying to aim through all that motion? That doesn't seem very sensible to me. And to top it off, toward the end of the video you can see how the passenger window had stopped a bullet near where the passengers head would be.

He picked up the gun when told to do so, checked it, loaded it, held it safely, stayed alert, looked for hazards, contacted for backup, and then to top it all off after all that, with adrenaline pumping because he probably thought he was going to die, handed the gun to the driver as soon as he needed it without being asked for it. I'd say he did his job perfectly and anyone that thinks he didn't seriously needs to get a grip.

No one really knows how they will react until in this situation and especially the first time, no idea of the guy's experience, often all planning and readiness goes out the window - but he really should have been getting on communications ASAP without prompting and same with weapon readiness - even with his sidearm he was hesitant as to what to do - but could have been first day on the job for all we know - he seemed to be following the more experienced guy's lead - he certainly could have responded to the situation far worse - managed to keep calm enough to not make the situation worse and stay out of the way of the other guy doing his thing.

Agreed there was nothing gained by trying to shoot back from the setup they had - it would almost certainly have either achieved nothing or a worse result - that isn't a vehicle setup to return fire from.

I'm quite surprised given some of the other videos I've seen they weren't in constant contact with other drivers and some kind of control (I don't know a huge amount about if but from watching some of Aton's videos it seems there are 3-4 different organisations/police divisions that specialise in fast response to these situations).

Dash cam:


Really smart thinking at 24 seconds - though could have gone badly wrong if the Ford was able to move left and push him into the rail - not only narrowing the amount they were exposed to being shot at but also keeping them occupied from thinking about shooting and only had about 0.5 seconds to read that situation and make a decision. (At 27 seconds he was blatantly thinking of backing up and taking the fight to them).
 
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Are you for real with this comment? It's real life, not a Hollywood movie. What was he supposed to do? Be shooting back at them? You don't roll down your window that's made of bullet proof glass (which saved the driver here, allowing him to get them both to safety, and also the passenger later on) to then hopelessly open fire with an automatic weapon through traffic, whilst the vehicle is being thrown about all over the place, in the hope that you might get a lucky shot on those pursuing you, and potentially wounding innocent people driving along the same road. That's reckless and stupid. [...]

Lots of projection there... yes affirmative action is a thing in South Africa and it's hardly unreasonable to question if someone seemingly not very competent is a beneficiary of it!

No one claimed he should roll down the window while they're being shot at, you're inventing your own narrative to argue against there... ordinarily, (at least in the military here and elsewhere) it would be the front passenger who'd be the vehicle commander since the driver is already rather occupied driving. This guy was not switched on at all - he needed to be told to get the rifle out and ready, he was just sat there looking gormless, barely said anything, no communication to even acknowledge what the driver had said to him... let alone looking around and communicating re: the location of the approaching vehicles etc.. and on the subject of communication - what do you think he could have done well before being prompted? Get in contact with whoever is supporting them! Even when prompted to call people he just fumbles around with the phone... and when they do stop at the end, of course, it is the driver who takes the rifle and gets out of the car.
 
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