Guests

This is (just out of interest) for those overseas people whom believe life is plain and simple in Africa ... it wont effect clients obviously BUT it might be rather interesting for an outsider to understand when I say DONT ever equate or compare your life back home to our challenges in Africa ...

This is a Zambia town incident report

Regards, Peter

----------Security Bulletin 03-05 ---------

24th March 2005.

Precedence: Immediate.

Action: All staff and spouses or partners to be aware and implement. Please pass to spouses and/or partners.

I have received a report from a colleague that local criminals are operating on the car park of Melissa supermarket.

It seems that a team has set up a scam whereby one member walks either behind or in front of a vehicle whilst the driver is manoeuvring. This person then falls to the floor and claims to have been knocked over by the car. A nearby police officer is then summoned, also part of the scam, and a deal is struck whereby the driver pays the alleged victim a large sum of money and the matter is dropped.

Should you be unfortunate to find yourself in this situation you should use your radio to contact Bravo Control who will despatch staff to you to act on your behalf.

You may wish to give your name and the High Commission address and instruct the complainant to get their legal representative to contact you via work.

For obvious reasons I advise against paying out any money, which may be seen as an admission of guilt, should the matter not be resolved at the scene. You should also note the number of the police officer at the scene and any injuries to the alleged victim - but you will need to handle the situation carefully.

I am available anytime to discuss this, or any other security matters or concerns.

Mark
Security Manager.

Hi Peter,

Just another boring day in Africa, certainly keeps us on our toes hey!

Look on the bright side, at least the beer, biltong, weather and oh yes almost forgot, the hunting is pretty darn good!

Wouldn't it be nice if before you got out of the car, you could back up to see what you've hit!

Rich Elliott

Peter, I hate to say this but this is a regular scheme in the States for insurance claims. I am talking big time hundreds of thousands a year in false claims that are paid.

Wouldn't work in Central Asia - my driver once ran over an elderly man who was crossing the road. The driver had made a right turn without looking and hit the man who was already crossing the road.

My driver got out, pulled the old bloke up off the ground and started abusing him - I had to intervene before it got physical.

No compensation or negligence laws and outcome is determined by social status. If you own a car you are, by definition, higher social status than someone on foot - therefore it is their fault. This is assuming that the pedestrian is not a member of one of the paramilitary forces (sanctioned by the government or otherwise) or related to a senior government official.

mike

Yea, this crap isn't limited to Africa. Hell its an every day occurence here in Washington DC. Ussually they don't settle for money they take the car instead and if the victim is a women they take both. There is even a name for it which is "carjacking". Got so bad they made killing during a carjacking a capital offence, which opens the door to the death penalty. The only difference is here in DC we've got a couple of million potential carjackers.

JPK

Another reason everyone should carry a gun..