World Cup travelers to crime-hit South Africa spending 4000 rands/day on bodyguards
June 5th, 2010 - 5:29 pm ICT by ANIJohannesburg, June 5(ANI): 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)
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Tags: bodyguards, bullets, businessmen, car hijacking, condon, crime rate, crime rates, first aid, football world cup, former soldiers, johannesburg, k management, kevin costner, killings, management consultants, marksmanship, millimetre, robberies, security studies, state of affairs