Moving to Joburg - how bad is the crime?

Crime is very real in Joburg but if you take precautions you can minimise the danger immensely. The other factor that will determine your safety is where you live: choose an area with closed off neighbourhoods and sector patrols and the crime rate will drop by 1000%.

Your property must have good security, you must contract an armed response security company (R300 p/month), and never leave valuables in your car when parked outside.Be careful when driving up to your house and look out for criminals awaiting you as this is the most common modis operandi for car hijacking.

In terms of lifestyle, the effect of crime is minimal. Joburgers do not go for walks in parks, or on the streets - instead they go to the gym for exercise or to the many shopping malls for recreation.

Most South Africans have never experienced serious crime against them. Of those that have, two reactions are common: they either get negative and paranoid, before immigrating; or they develop a sense of increased vigilance and philosophical perspective about the incident.

Bottom line: Joburg is a dangerous place compared to other large cities, but if you take precautions and keep your wits about you, you and your family will be fine.

From Sine Thieme:

We've lived here for about a year and have not had any problems. I remember going online before moving here and being horrified about the stories I heard. So, compared to what you'll hear, living here is very normal and uneventful. We lead very normal lives, other than having to go in and out of our security estate with a fingerprint recognition system. Yes, you have to be "sensible" as South Africans like to tell you, and not go out in the middle of the night or into an area you don't know. But the places you'll regularly go to for shopping or eating out are very safe.

As for lifestyle, I think it depends where you're moving from. For us, coming from America, the adjustment has been minimal. The kids were quite used to being driven places they wanted to go, and it's the same here. People don't just walk somewhere or hop on the bus. However, if you come from Europe and your kids are used to taking the public bus downtown all by themselves, then it will be an adjustment living here and they will miss that freedom.

As the previous poster said, you will want to live in a security estate, such as Dainfern or Kyalami, and there your kids will move around freely. Dainfern, for instance, offers quite a range of sports and activities, so that ideally you don't really have to leave your estate all that much. In fact, you will not want to, not so much because of security concerns but because of traffic, which is quite bad in Joburg.

~ Sine

I lived in Cape Town for years. Safety there wasnt too much of an issue although you still heard some bad stories. I gather Johannesburg is a different story - you need to live with very good security and be mindful of where you go. Noone walks around the city, shopping is all in malls.