Moz worried about robbery of SA tourists
April 13 2010 at 05:44PM


Maputo - An armed robbery of South African tourists in Mozambique at the weekend is damaging to tourism in the country, the resort company concerned said on Tuesday.

"From a tourism point of view, the incident is certainly a massive blot on the Mozambican authority's ability to protect tourists, and certainly a disincentive to invest or promote Mozambique as a tourist destination of choice," Zamque Limitado said.

Zamque owns the Morrumbene Holiday Resort in Inhambane province in southern Mozambique where Leon Scott, his family and others were robbed in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"The occupants of the two chalets were held at gunpoint and tied up with strapping and robbed of their valuables including jewellery, cellphones computers and cash."


Zamque confirmed the robbers knew their way around.

"The perpetrators clearly had an understanding of the layout of the resort."

They fled with another South African couple's Toyota Land Cruiser, which was later found abandoned in a ditch.

The police high commissioner and local police head were investigating the crime.

"(It) appeared to be linked to various other incidents over the past few weeks where South African tourists appear to have been targeted and robbed and in some cases raped at gunpoint," Zamque said.

Another group of South Africans was robbed, assaulted and a woman raped last Monday at a resort near Chissibuca close to Xai-Xai, Die Burger newspaper reported.

The area is popular with South African tourists.

Mozambican national police spokesman Pedro Cossa on Tuesday confirmed the Chissibuca incident, but could not confirm the rape.

Rape kits are not generally used by Mozambican police.

Cossa did not have any information about the past weekend's robbery near Morrumbene because reports from that provinces had not yet reached police headquarters in Maputo.

Mozambican authorities met on Tuesday with tour operators in Inhambane province to discuss safety measures in the tourism industry.

The department of international relations and co-operation said the South African High Commissioner to Mozambique, Dikgang Moopeloa was in close contact with Mozambican authorities and was rendering consular assistance to the victims.

"It is indeed regrettable that South African citizens were befallen by this unfortunate incident," the department said in a statement.

"High Commissioner Moopeloa has urged South Africans travelling or planning to travel to Mozambique to exercise the necessary caution and should enquire with the lodges or venues where they have booked their accommodation about the safety in and around areas they are planning to visit.

"High Commissioner Moopeloa emphasised that South Africans were not specifically the target of any attacks." - Sapa

They shouldn't worry, the South Africans are used to that (and worse).

Uh..Ross, No one gets used to having a gun pointed at them, or, raped!

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Gould:
They shouldn't worry, the South Africans are used to that (and worse).

It's Russ not Ross.

My point, for those a little slow on the uptake, is that crime is so out of hand in RSA (which has the highest murder rate in the world and further, where farmers are 8x more likely to be murdered than the general populace) that it's ironic that the Mozambicans are worried about their image among South Africans.

Well if what is posted here is to be beleived, you all had better not travel to South Africa, Mozambique or Zimbabwe because you
will:

lose your luggage,
lose your guns,
miss your flights,
get extorted by unprofessional P/H's,
have to over tip,
bribe your way everywhere
get murdered, robbed and assaulted.

I reckon you girls better stay home with mummy and watch it all on Discovery channel.

Constantly 'bashing' travel in Southern Africa seems to be a hobby on here.

Sorry RUSS: can not type. My response remains the same.