Just be thankful this was not an American or British Tourist.
If this continent has any LONG TERM hope, best the leaders (government) understand that:
1) Consumers have choices
2) most long haul international tourists value their life more than residents of this continent
3) society should embrace the challenge of this problem in order to collectively eradicate it
I for one, am desperately concerned that we are heading for a catastrophic train smash in this country unless fundamentals are addressed.

Richard, I cannot leave this. Your comments are right on except that we can be thankful for the persons nationality. This is way below the belt. EVERYBODY has family, loved ones, father and mother, or maybe siblings... No man, it remains a human life!

I don't think Richard was trying to say a Ukrainian life is worth less, but simply that the outcry would have been far greater - in Britain and the US - if this had been one of their residents.

We don't need a 'communication strategy' or a few more 'tourism monitors' in the CBD - we need real, coordinated action against violent crime. Patrols, dogs, drones, neighbourhood watches, private security etc. We need to support all community structures trying to tackle crime in any way. We need to get as many young people as possible up into our mountain to take ownership of it. And we need to tackle violence in the city across the board - you cannot separate 'tourism crime' from general crime. People keep telling me that Alan Winde gets things done... This report does not inspire any confidence that he grasps the situation at all. My suggestion follows;

Dear Premier Alan Winde. Please take on the safety and security of Table Mountain National Park as a priority. Use it to develop a model where surrounding communities can get involved in looking after OUR mountain, and a vehicle to enable ALL Capetonians to access the mountain, to build a sense of ownership, to access the benefits of being in nature and to learn tourism related skills. They can then be empowered to improve safety and security in their own neighbourhoods. It's win-win-win situation! Crime and violence in Cape Town and crime and violence on the mountain are the same issue and any solution needs to tackle both. And please don't use the typical DA excuse that this is a national reponsibility (through SanParks - I have seen NOTHING to indicate that they have deployed additional resources and, even if they have, thiey cannot do this on their own - they don't have the will, capacity or resources. Just as the SANDF is not a solution on its own either) - We need to sort this stuation out ourselves, with or without them, as a city. Too much depends on it for you to allow it to fail.

Tall order Marie Louise, you expect the Provincial body to override the National body, and pump in the millions needed to rectify the security situation, while the National body takes all the taxes aaaand the exorbitant gate fees which should be used for management, and instead siphons it away. Hmmmm, I think not. Put the responsibility where it belongs.

I understand exactly where the responsibility should lie but I believe that we have reached the point where that is irrelevant and we have to think out the box. I believe that the province should use whatver resources it has, in an innovative way, to address this issue and NOT wait for those responsible to do their jobs. They have shown clearly that they are not going to.

And if the province and city are not going to step up (I don;t have much conficence that they will), then we need to it ourselves

Sorry posted previously in wrong place....am in agreement generally with Kellett's comments..

Self Defence Tourism? For our international visitors? We are not trying to attract Chuck Norris but "normal" people.

We have a physical fact problem - one of too many people in crime and too much opportunity (read space) for them to attack people. To fix this means that only people with permits and passes should be entering reserves, NPs and biospheres.

Having no control invites exactly these problems - from the opportunistic - which given the SA circumstances, is hardly surprising.

SANPARKS and other conservation organisations at a lower level should be engaged to support this aspect - I repeat - only persons who have paid and been recorded, should be in these spaces.

Use the army, second the local CPA's, etc etc to patrol and control this - at least initially; maintaining our tourism confidence is the key issue - once its bad news, it takes years to fix.

The local population (eg you and I) around these areas should be driving this, just as we have done in Magaliesberg, Waterberg, KNP and other conservation areas. SAPs are hamstrung and not focussed, so forget help there, unless its life or death.

Maybe "self-defence tourism" is a good idea. Offer Maori gangs a return plane ticket, free board and lodging and a salary for 6 months. Dress them as elderly hikers and let them 'patrol' the mountains and deal with the criminal elements.

It shows once again how 'important' tourism is for this government (not to mention the Indaba debacle).
There are many more incidents which the local (censored) media does not give a word about yet all nicely spread out in the international news. And when it does the local media is acting like their nose is bleeding and finally jump on the wagon when it is too late.
Incidents on the mountain have been going on for years, Sanparks is simply not interested as they are a typical government body.
An example? The murder on a Belgian citizen a year ago in Hermanus. The Belgian police has offered assistance since the South African police has done zero to nothing and sweeping it under the carpet. The South African authorities have declined any help in their 'Oscar' style investigation.

Well, according to many, I am the negative one… and as for my post about the ‘incident’ at the Mount Nelson – “….your exaggeration. This has NOT had HUGE MEDIA COVERAGE” was the response from some. Tourist dying because of crime… The next slur will be ‘It happens all over the world’… wanna bet! Thanks for all the people that is trying so hard to contain this, and as for the goverment, I am still waiting for an answer after my last post…. I cannot help but wonder if media coverage about the arrests will have an effect and if the Tourism minister will do all possible to get the news ‘out there’, but mopping a floor with the tap open will have little effect.

Pieter, you should stop being so negative and rather look at the positive in things. Every cloud has a silver lining you know, and if Brueton is going to sort this out by giving out tips, then we have a huge opportunity for a new niche tourism sector - Self defense tourism. What we do is, we set up self defense classes with weapons training, simple stuff like a piece of lead pipe or a home made zip gun, and then in the afternoons you go for looong walks alone or in small groups, through dodge areas in the City or especially, yes you guessed it....on our Table Mountain trails. This will take you into the practical element of the tour where you will get to practice your newly found skills and maybe moer a bad guy trying to stab you.

So then, we have it - Tip Number 1 for all freedom seeking, fresh air guests. Join your local Self Defence Tour as the first 3 days of your visit to Cape Town. This might even be enough to see you through the whole of South Africa although we do suggest the advanced courses such as "how to identify a service delivery protest" if you are doing a self drive.

Now that you have tip number 1, please suggest a tip number 2 for us Pieter.

Great post Chris, hihi, tip number 2; Install huge secure walk-in vaults at Int. airports and ask all travellers entering SA if they have a gun. Upon the obvious answer, let them go to the vault and choose one...

Fantastic Pieter, I like the way you are thinking now. Very proactive and positive. At least we will then know where all the confiscated and recovered stolen weapons are going. The only problem I have with tips 1 and 2 is that they would pretty soon rid us of the criminal element making it unsustainable because there would be no more bad guys left to deal with. As soon as there is resistance and retaliation then they would disappear. Making this niche an unsustainable model.
Whereas if you do nothing but hand out tips and have meetings, then you just have to up your marketing campaign and you wont run out of unsuspecting tourists [and law abiding locals].

Self Defence Tourism? For our international visitors? We are not trying to attract Chuck Norris but "normal" people.

We have a physical fact problem - one of too many people in crime and too much opportunity (read space) for them to attack people. To fix this means that only people with permits and passes should be entering reserves, NPs and biospheres.
Having no control invites exactly these problems - from the opportunistic - which given the SA circumstances, is hardly surprising.
SANPARKS and other conservation organisations at a lower level should be engaged to support this aspect - I repeat - only persons who have paid and been recorded, should be in these spaces.
Use the army, second the local CPA's, etc etc to patrol and control this - at least initially; maintaining our tourism confidence is the key issue - once its bad news, it takes years to fix.
The local population (eg you and I) around these areas should be driving this, just as we have done in Magaliesberg, Waterberg, KNP and other conservation areas. SAPs are hamstrung and not focussed, so forget help there, unless its life or death.