[20 Pics] S.Africa: My Pics: The Completely lawless chaotic hell of Johannesburg traffic...

Johannesburg used to be an orderly First World city. They used to call it the "Golden City".

But these days Johannesburg is quite chaotic. You can hardly drive through any part of Johannesburg anymore without coming across traffic lights that aren't working.

The black taxi drivers of South Africa are known for their terrible driving, their constant breaking of the rules of the road and for their bad manners, and even, for their murder of others.

I want to show you something that happens quite often in Johannesburg these days. We are so used to the rules of the road being broken that these days we can handle a lot of driving situations which I think people in the Western world would find unbelievable. But there comes a time when even we face new situations that border on the bizarre.

I work in several buildings for bank I work for. I commute as is necessary to attend meetings and to visit different business units. Last friday was relatively quiet for me. I had 2 meetings on my calendar and looked forward to a relatively orderly day in our Randburg offices. Then at lunch time as I checked my calendar, I realised that I had an afternoon meeting in the Johannesburg CBD (Central Business District, or as Americans might call it, "The Inner City"). So I dashed off for the meeting and then worked on my laptop at those offices for the rest of the afternoon.

At 5pm I wanted to go home when I noticed two men had remained on in the office. They told me that the traffic outside was hideous and they would rather stay late. I was familiar with the complete breakdown in traffic in that part of Johannesburg. I'd seen it before. There are 3 city blocks where you can struggle for close to an hour to cross 3 traffic lights. It is very close to Diagonal street where the old stock exchange building was, on the way to the Queen Elizabeth bridge.

The situation there can become completely unbelievable. It is in that part of Johannesburg that I learned to become a savage driver - a barbarian just like those black taxi drivers. I used to be a quiet driver. I never used by hooter (horn) for 20 years. But now I'm up there with the best of them. I can push and shove to such a degree that even the black taxi drivers make way for me.

And on this day, I learned a new trick - how to intimidate them all with my digital camera!

I decided I was not waiting an hour or more for the traffic hell to resolve itself. The sooner I got on the road, the sooner I'd get home. But I grabbed my camera and decided to take the opportunity to take these photos. Nobody has ever before recorded what I'm about to show you in these photos below. Check it out. It is amazing I never had an accident on this day.

Here I am, in the main road where all hell breaks loose. These white minibus taxis are the "Black taxis" we refer to. These are the main transport of the black people. This institution was created by President PW Botha during Apartheid. This was the most successful experiment in Black Capitalism on the entire African continent. These guys do good work - the only problem is - they do it like flipping ruthless savages.

This guy on the left was trying to shove his way in front of my car. I've learned that one is really foolish to give anyone right of way. If you let one guy in, then a whole bunch of them will shove their way in and you could end up standing still while everyone shoves in front of you and abuses your kindness. So now I shove back. This guy was hanging out of his window gesturing and wanting to get in. I held up my camera and took photos of him, and that intimidated him into behaving better and looking for a better spot to shove in.

And so we shove our way forward. Take a good look in this photo. The traffic lights are all working on this day, and now they are GREEN for go... but the road is blocked because the cars in the road crossing ours are completely indifferent to us. You can see a van blocking our progress. It is these incredibly selfish bad manners which causes the entire Johannesburg road system in the CBD to come to a TOTAL GRINDING HALT. Everyone shoves across, even when they shouldn't drive, and then when the lights change the road crossing it is blocked. Everyone is caught in a TOTAL GRIDLOCK caused by this insane shoving.

Of course, there is not a Policeman in sight, not a Traffic Policeman anywhere... nobody from the JMPD... nothing... Its just this chaotic hell.

The light is green again, we can go, except for that white pickup truck blocking the rightmost lanes.

The light is green for us, but do you see the pedestrian crossing quite nonchalantly between the two cars in front of me? (Oh, in South Africa black pedestrians don't care... they cross roads when they feel like it... The other day, the light was red for the pedestrian but she crossed as slowly as possible causing me to wait while she sidled along as it pleased her, even though the light for me was green... This is quite common).

Study these photos carefully. You'll see that the previous 2 photos and the next 2 are taken at the same traffic light. All the time, the light is green for me, but pedestrians are walking across willy nilly as it suits them. And you can see that even in the road in front of us, other cars continue crossing DESPITE IT BEING RED. Do you see now there are black taxis blocking the road?

Now there are black taxis blocking the centre and the left of the road, and only the ones on the right are managing to cross. Kindly note, in all this time, the traffic lights are green for us, but we can barely move! (Although, on this day, I was pushing and shoving like MAD and I prided myself on getting through this hell in a mere 20 minutes - a record - previously I'd been stuck at these three traffic lights for as much as 45 minutes!). On this day I was driving extremely aggressively while holding my camera in the faces of black taxi drivers and snapping them. They could see my camera's flash going off.

I get across one traffic light. At the next one, the light is green for me, but black pedestrians are merrily crossing while other black taxis have turned into the road.

The next photo is out of sequence. It is at the previous traffic light. But again, see the lights are green for us, and taxis are physically barring the way for us.

This guy on the left wanted to shove his way in front of me, but I just photographed him and I just moved my car to a few centimetres from the bumper of the car in front of me. I won. I drive like they do, like a raving lunatic. Its the only way...

Oh yeah, and here is a black guy with a trolley who sidles DIAGONALLY across the road... not bothered at all... Note the green traffic lights...

Its green for me to go... but... my way is completely blocked by these completely unmannered drivers from hell...

So now I drive like a lunatic... a complete lunatic like them... I force my way across the road. The light is green for me, but I can't cross, so I go half way. I know when the light changes I'll be stuck in the middle of the road, but its the only way to cross... If I don't do this, I'll be stuck here for the next hour...

I'm right up against him. Note, the light is still green for me...

He sees me taking photos... smile... for the camera...

Finally... across the 2nd traffic light...

Zebra crossing? What's that? Black pedestrians walk anywhere the hell they please... any time it so pleases them...

More black pedestrians just walking and crossing at any angle, anywhere the mood takes them.

So these black taxis are trying to shove their way into our lane. Then, suddenly, the taxi driver on the left decides: What the hell, I would like to chat to someone. So he gets out of his taxi and walks over to talk to someone. Note the taxi on the left, the door is slightly open and the driver has gone...

Here is a closeup of his door, which you can see is open, and there's no driver. But take a look at the message he has painted on his door: "Mind your own business". The cheeky bugger! And that's pretty much their darned attitude...

And finally, Mr "Mind your own business" walks back to his taxi and gets in, while a black lady decides: What the heck... I think I'll cross here...

A few minutes after this I got over the third traffic light and drove home. But I had a lot of close calls during this drive, with cars mere centimetres away from me. I'm amazed I did not have an accident. Most amazing of all is I got through this in 20 minutes. But that's only because I know when to drive like a complete pig.

Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of: Government by Deception

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
(George Orwell)

My all time favourite movie quote is from the Dwarf in Lord of the Rings: "Certainty of death, small chance of success... what are we waiting for?"

Date Posted: Saturday 21-Mar-2009
What planet have you been on this last week Nwali.

Three cheers David Themba. For once we have a public official doing what he is paid for. And doing it without fear or favour. If only other public officials and politicians did their job the way he is doing his - let's hope he keep it up. He shows that there can be political will to deal with crime. If only because he was almost run over by a taxi while trying to direct traffic at a robot during a gridlock like is in these pictures.

By the way David Themba is Joburg's acting metro police chief.

Metro police arrested over a hundred taxi drivers this week. All are screaming unfair like Nwali. But you forget Nwali that 30 other drivers were also arrested - we don't know if they were black or white - I presume some are white.

The fact is all minibus taxi drivers are black. And by ratio they break more traffic rules than the same number of other drivers.

Keep it up David Themba.

Pieter
Roodepoort

Date Posted: Friday 20-Mar-2009
The author is biased. He is not giving us the other side of the story. Author, what about private car drivers who drive without following the rule of the road? And don't tell me most of those private owners who dont follow the rules are blacks because that would make u a real liar.

You story also focus on taxi drivers and black pedestrians. You know why there is chaos in Johannesbug, its because there is no enforcement (and a handful of white people still work for the metro police) so you would expect them (and that includes you and some other handful of white drivers and pedestrians) behaving the way they do.

Oh to those who say white people did good by colonizing, its like saying to that guy in Austria who raped her daughter that he did good by raping her otherwise she would not have had good looking kids.

Nwali
Johannesburg
South Africa

Date Posted: Wednesday 18-Mar-2009
I disagree with the Native American comment.

If we whites had not introduced alcohol to the tribes, they would be far better off than they are today.

I’m all for a white nation only but what would you do with the American Indians? They were here first.

Lars Pluss
San Francisco CA
USA

Date Posted: Tuesday 17-Mar-2009
As usual, the n****** take over and the place goes to hell. I thank Yahweh everyday that I am White!

It is the White race that has caused every advancement. The utter jealousy of the other races is so apparent. It is why we are hated.

I hear American Indians and blacks whinning all the time as if we are the cause of their problems. Indians and blacks would still be murdering, stealing and eating each other if it weren't for Whites.

We are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and we have MOST DEFINITELY been a blessing to the world, but with ingrates like the lesser races, they will never admit it.

We should go back to WHITE ONLY nations and let the heathen make it on their own. They'd be back to murdering, thieving and eating each other within the decade.

JamesTheJust
Phoenix AZ
USA

Date Posted: Monday 16-Mar-2009
That n****** do what n****** are genetically bound to do goes without question. Why bother with such trivia? Here in Santiago Chile, next to Argentina the by far most civilized place on the continent I see the same thing (slightly less in chaotic) daily. Ditto in Mexico, ditto in France, ditto in Italy. The lack of culture is merely a matter of degree. The only places on earth where traffic discipline exists are white countries. ALL others which feature a large sh*t-skin population have chaotic traffic conditions. I hear Brasil is a real hum-dinger. Gerry Frederics

Gerry Frederics
Santiago
Chile

Date Posted: Saturday 14-Mar-2009
While I cannot even remotely claim to have witnessed anything like the author is describing, I can relate. Here in Vancouver, you get the same indifference to traffic signals by pedestrians.

If it's your light, and you want to turn right (we drive on right side of road here) the stragglers will take their time, chatting on their cell phones using up the one car per light opportunity for drivers to stroll across the road. Should you feel entitled to assert your right of way and honk, you get sneers, or even a slap on the hood.

Then there are the brain-trust drivers who are not able to reasonably judge space / time when crossing an intersection in heavy traffic. The light will turn yellow, and they'll pound on the gas and travel 20 feet into the intersection - regardless of there being enough space to accomadate their vehcile on the other side. This of course forces pedestrians into traffic, and blocks the opposing traffic's progress thru the intersection.

I have driven in NYC, LA and Detroit in addition to many other cities in Canada, and in those cities - yeah the driving is atrocious. But you know what? If you drive offensively defensive, you can get thru it. If you think that the guy next to you is going to cut you off, odds are he will. If you don't want to get cut off, you speed up to eliminate his merge opportunity. You expect everyone to screw you, and act accordingly. Amazingly, it works...rather well actually.

The problems start when you get a new driver, or some "new Canadian" who has never driven in Canada (if anywhere) driving some $80,000 Mercedes who has no balls and thats when the trouble starts. These are the ones expecting someone to let them in. Fools. As a result, traffic gets clogged behind them for blocks. They are completely indifferent to the hundreds of honking horns and avoid all eye contact with other drivers. Then, once an opportunity presents itself (usually a red light) they progress ahead - unbelievable!

Here in Vancouver, ignorance and complete disregard for anyone else on the road is not a trait inherent in any specific race. If it's not the 75 year old Chinese woman in the Cadillac Escalade - of which she can't even see over the steering wheel blocking the intersection as she waits to make a left turn into opposing one way traffic oblivious to the legions of honking motorists urging her to move straight ahead, its the young white female drivers (I am also white) in their fancy over-priced hybrid plastic dinky cars darting in and out of traffic like they were Mario Andretti. Don't even get me started on the taxis - who will not even pull over to pick up or drop off a fare. Try honking, and they just wave their arms out of their windows, beckoning you to pull into oncoming traffic to pass them.

I have to stop now...getting too worked up thinkin about it.

Gonna go to the window and watch the carnage below me in the worst intersection of the city....and laugh, and laugh and laugh.

Johnny Canuck
Vancouver
Canada

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
I enjoy your articles from Africa, but don't always bother to read them because of the width of the text across the page. Scrolling vertical is easy but not horizontally.
I use Safari on a Mac and it doesn't have a facility (that I know of) that will fit the script to the width of the page.
Cheers,
Peter

Peter
Fremantle

Date Posted: Saturday 14-Mar-2009
Hey Gairk,
Well said.

And remember: maintaining something is far easier than building it from scratch. The whites built it from scratch and the blacks can't even maintain it!

Jan Lamprecht
Johannesburg
South Africa

Date Posted: Saturday 14-Mar-2009
Hey getusedtoit-2,
Don't only tell HALF THE STORY and conveniently leave out the other half or other three-quarters of the story!

Among the parts you so conveniently left out are:-
1. A Black Empire existed in West Africa, whose main form of income came from catching other blacks and selling them to Whites. It was not whites who came to catch blacks my friend. It was BLACKS who hunted down and sold other blacks to the whites. The whites just came on their ships, paid their money to the BLACKS they were buying the slaves from and left.

2. The Arabs were buying black slaves from blacks in East Africa for several hundred years before whites started the practise. (Arabs also raided the coastline of Europe and captured whites for slavery. The most rampant slave owners in history are the ARABS!)

3. Blacks in Africa owned Black slaves - heck Blacks in Africa were selling Black slaves to all comers they could find on both the East and West coasts of Africa. And there are records of Blacks in North America also owning slaves.

4. The Japanese were never anybody's SLAVES. The Japanese in Japan definitely weren't the slaves of white people. Incidentally, in WWII the Japan started the first crusade against the nasty White people, and it all went well until the Asians who were freed discovered that the Japanese were far harsher than the Whites (which, incidentally, is a lesson Blacks in Africa are learning - namely, that Black rule is much harsher than White rule).

I note, from your ridiculous attitude, and we've had many like you on this site over the years, that you're one of these highly twisted Black Americans (I refuse to refer to you as an African American, since I'm an African and you're NOT, and never will be). Clearly you're one of those whose been fed the narrow-minded Left/Liberal junk that so many of you Black Americans actually believe is true. But if you actually moved outside your extremely narrow-minded Leftist circles, and looked at the world properly, from all angles, you'd see that a lot of your criticism of whites is quite unjustified and often completely wrong.

So whites built the atom bomb! Boo hoo. And how many people died from the atom bomb? Actually, to date, less than 200,000. More people have died from inhaling second hand smoke than have died from nuclear power so far. Oh, and while on the subject of killing and death, I'll bet you, that my buddy sitting in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has slaughtered more people in his own country than have died from nuclear bombs and nuclear science so far. But are you jumping up on your little high horse over that? Or are you just so bitter and utter TWISTED that your myopic eyes can only see the crimes of Whites!? Does it not bother you that Mugabe starves BLACK people to death? Does it not bother you that they gang rape women and shove bayonets into their private parts? Does it not bother you that they chop parts of their arms and legs off for voting wrongly? Your eyes, my friend, only see the crimes of the WHITE MAN and no other. But I hope you will open your eyes some day.

While the white man invented nuclear energy and the nuclear bomb, both of which he should be very proud of, since it is a truly amazing invention, and NUCLEAR ENGINES take ships and submarines around the world, and in the near future NUCLEAR ENGINES will be taking spacecraft greater distances than they're going using rockets... His peaceful use of nuclear energy will probably greatly assist the planet in producing more and cleaner energy in the future as an alternative to oil. (Yes, nuclear energy is clean - they've pretty much solved the storage problems - do you know of even one person who has died from used up nuclear material?)

The White man has gone on to invent... heck, most everything else, including the computer you're using the the Internet you're using to insult us over.

You should read that book, Out of America, by the African American who came to Africa. Once he'd been here, he reckoned: Thank God for slavery.

YOU would not be able to survive in Africa, but we can. And it took a mere 6 million whites who colonised a continent which now has a population of 800 million, to give this continent the first real infrastructure and progress that it has ever known.

You say the Indians were colonised: Oh, and Indians (since I know many Indians), will tell you that when the British left, the Indians made sure they continued on with the traditions that the British taught them. The Indian attitude was that these people (the British) came to teach them, and they will retain the lessons learnt for the future. This is totally the opposite of Robert Mugabe, Mandela and others in Africa - go and check India's GDP some time and see how much India has progressed. So the Indians didn't think that Colonialism was bad at all.

And there are little rat hole countries in Africa, like Liberia (originally created for your forefathers - Black Americans who couldn't wait to get away from the Whites). So off they ran to Africa... got a country, and then went on to:-
1) Enslave the Black population there in a One-party state for 100 years.
2) Kept the country in a totally backward state.

So there is the ridiculous situation where NON-Colonised African countries like Liberia and Ethiopia now sniffle and cry: Waaaaaa... we're not as ADVANCED as the rest of Africa BECAUSE WE WERE NEVER COLONISED.

Who enslaved the New World and decimated the natives? Well, let me remind you, that those "enslaved natives" were a pretty nasty lot too hey. Go check out the Mayans... They weren't exactly poster-boys for HUMAN RIGHTS... cutting hearts out of living people and throwing women and girls to their deaths as sacrifices to the Gods. Given the general backwardness of the Whites and other races at that time, I don't think the Whites are half as bad as you pretend they are. If you want an unfair comparison, then its easy. I took could pull out barbaric Roman practises from 2,000 years ago and compare it to today and then call the Romans barbarians, but that would not be a fair comment on the Romans - given all the other fabulous things they did.

Who Colonised the world so much? You say it as if it was a crime. Yes the Whites did, and in virtually every instance they left those countries better off than prior to them being there.

Who brought dope to China?
Ok, this is the one point I'll give you credit for. Yes, the British sold opium to China and corrupted China. But having said that... China was the world's superpower at the time, and the Chinese rulers were so worthless (much like Western leaders today) that they concentrated on writing poetry rather than running their administration and army. They were so worthless that a couple of ships from Britain were able to intimidate them and kick their asses. If China had any strength or decency, it could have fended the British off. So the dope to China is:-
a) A Testimony to how crooked the British can be - using crime to support their empire.
b) A Testimony to the utter worthlessness of Chinese civilisation.

So it was a case of the ruthless versus the worthless, and despite the massive differences in size, the ruthless won (as they often do - even in our so-called modern world).

As for Global Crime?
No, Whites brought about Global CIVILISATION.
Again, no need to thank us for us.

Oh, and I love your final comment to me: "If you don't like the traffic in Johannesburg then TOUGH LUCK".

Actually, if it weren't for the WHITE MAN, there wouldn't be Johannesburg, nor traffic in Johannesburg to begin with. It would be veld... and the blacks would be running around with spears, living in hunts, surviving the odd lion attack and so forth. IF it weren't for the White colonisers, there'd be next to nothing in South Africa.

Again, you can remain seated - no need to thank us for any of this.

I will pray for you, and I pray that your eyes will be opened to your own racism and blind hatred of white people which is founded upon the ignorance and the twisted propaganda of the fools whom you go it from!

Jan Lamprecht
Johannesburg
South Africa

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
I agree with getusedtoit. Whites have been greedy and controlling for millenia. Native American Indians, Japanese, Indians, Africans....who developed the first atomic bomb? It was a competition between the Russians, Germans and Americans.

Who enslaved the "New World" and decimated the natives?

Who colonized so much of the world?

Who brought the dope to China?

We're talking GLOBAL crime?

So if you don't like the traffic in J'berg, tough luck.

getusedtoit-2

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Depopulating the planet is the only solution. Hail thermal expansion!!!

The Rye

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
getusedtoit, you need some help chum. It's not "the whites have made messes of everything".

Noooo, it's the blacks who mess up what the whites have built up, it's the blacks.

Gairk * AfricanCrisis Volunteer *
In the EU

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Yes, the freedom and unity Mandela brought. Truth and reconciliation

boggled

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
A toy squirt gun filled with urine will handle the pedestrians, with a dozen throwable eggs to back it up, and a rubber hose for close encounters: rubber hoses don't leave a mark, and inflict indredible pain.

For the black taxis, a pistol crossbow aimed at their tire might persuade them to back off. If not, actually put the tire out.

If pistol crossbows aren't available by mail order in SA, cut a pistol shape out of plywood, attach surgical rubber tube at the "muzzle," and make your arrows out of blunt steel rods with a little "V" at the back end for the rubber tubing to grab. Fire it like a slingshot, with two hands.

Keep a meter-and-a-half forked stick in the car, with a padded fork. When someone objects to your rebuke, and approaches the car, stick the forked end under their jaw, against their throat, and push gently but firmly. They fall down.

To really make an impression, put a loop of rope at the end of the stick and run the rope through guides back to your end; a "snake stick" for people. Loop it over their head, pull it snug, lock it down: they can't get closer, they can't get farther. Then clip your end of the stick to a loop your bumper, and force them to walk through traffic behind your car while you drive home.

Then get out another "snake stick" and be ready for the next pedestrian who crosses against the light.

If they grab it and try to pull it away from you, let them take it while you reach for your pistol crossbow. For anti-personnel, use the same blunt steel "arrows" only with a very solid pad on the front of the bolt, and shoot them square in the forehead with it. Big headache, probably unconsciousness, but no wound.

If you wish to be gentler with the Great Unwashed, order some ultra-loud horns of the type used on very large trucks, and mount them under your front bumper. They're about $25 USD over here,and they put out such a huge sound pressure that, at short range, like a person walking in front of your bumper, they'll literally knock someone down. And you can say, "All I did was beep my horn..."

Slowly but surely, you will educate the impudent, and traffic will clear up, especially if you tell all your friends, and they do this as well.

RipplingBeast
Cair Paravel
Narnia

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
I have moved to Cape Town 3 years ago and still I am shoked how lawless this country is. and sorry but avoiding pedestrians in the heavy traffic in the city is a child game - try avoiding them on a highway, driving 120 km per hour and a moron just decides to cross, no matter what!!!! This is a war zone and it seems that government has taken a position to bully anybody with brain (white and black alike) out of this country so that Holy Julius (Malema , that is) and his friends can run the country without being criticized.

ALEXANDRA
cape town
s.a.

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Why are these moronic Americans trying to drag us down to their level?

Its time us whites told blacks that if they dont like Europe and her ways, they must pack their bags and leave...

Jo
South Africa

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
You sound almost racist and even ignorant with your comments. Here in the U.S. many cities are like as you describe in this article. And guess what, I see this everyday where I live too, and most are all white people who are driving like idiots and acting with disrespect of others. Yes respect of others is a big issue here too, but it is not race specific as it is there in South Africa. I have been there and have experienced what you are saying, but as a history lesson how did things get to where they are now in most countries in the world? The whites have made messes of everything and now we see people acting accordingly. Not to say that this is an excuse, but it is a fact all over the world how things became so messed up and that is because of white imperialism, their greed and their money. You can't keep dominating and oppressing people and expect nothing negative to happen in return, wake up people. Since whites have most of the money, power and wealth in the world they need to lead by example and not the poor example that they have been living for so long.

getusedtoit

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
They do this in L.A. too...Block intersections, run red lights, nothing new....SELFISH, SELF-ABSORBED ASSHOLES in L.A., is what it is...

JBW

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Hi Jan,
I got here from Jeff Rense. I work in downtown Jo'burg every day. I park at the Carlton Center and walk 10 blocks to my office. I've learned to jaywalk with the best.;) It's not only blacks that do this - everybody does it! And I also have to push through the intersections against the lights in the afternoon to drive home. I do admit it's lawlessness, but it's the only way to survive in this town. I do appreciate the patrolling guards, but "town" does not scare me unduly.
Would I emigrate? I don't think so! The economy still works better than Stateside, and I prefer my 'lawless freedom' better than having Big Brother watching every step I make.
Go well!!

Kolya
Johannesburg
South Africa

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
DAMN those blacks! How dare they make life difficult for white people! Those darn blacks act like Africa is "their" country...the nerve!!!LOL

BROWN

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
And I thought we had bad drivers here! I actually don't like driving in the inner city anywhere, because the inner cities tend to predate the automobile; inner city streets weren't originally engineered for vehicular traffic, yet they carry the heaviest volumes of it. But at least if you had an accident in a situation like you recorded with your camera, you'd probably live through it, because of the low speeds involved. What really makes me nervous is bumper-to-bumper traffic all going 70 or 75 mph on a freeway; one slip, and there'll be heavy casualties.
We do have quite a few African taxi drivers operating out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (mostly Somalis and Ethiopians), and I must say they don't drive any worse than anyone else around this area -- then again, traffic laws are enforced here, and a bad taxi driver will soon lose his license.

hereward
Mankato, MN
United States

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
F***ing ******s in the US have always done this. I guess holding up whitey is just in their genes.

HaHaHa
USA

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
I live in Ohio, U.S.A. I have noticed all of my life the black folk walking in the middle of the road. It's just the way they are. I've read that they cannot think so well in the abstract. Combine this with being (as a rule) rude, and you get picture. The author is correct; "when in Rome".

Zampan0
usa

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Now you sound like an old granny whining about the cold tea at the Kerk!!!

Make a plan... this is Afica. Jaysus.

Trent
Jhb

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
You keep mentioning the pedestrians that are crossing at anytime they please. Well, if the roads are completely clogged like that, with no one obeying the signals, how are they supposed to get to the other side of the street? Obviously no driver is going to yield to them, so they have to get across as they can.

Mikkie

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Sounds like good old fashioned racism. "look at those blacks" and "see how the black". Gee, go to New York City in Times Square and the scene is the same except for white people doing the same thing. Try parts of Phoenix, AZ with the Mexicans and on and on.

If you don't like it, leave. I bet there will be an article about the crazy driver who takes pictures all the time to intimidate others soon appearing here!

Miker12

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Where I live that would be a gold mine for traffic cops. They would write tickets all day and force people to pay them. Here people cross against the lights as well and jaywalk when it suits them (but our traffic looks to be much lighter than here). We get people who stop in the middle of intersections here while creeping along in a line of traffic. Then the light catches them in the middle of the crossing and the lane with the green light can't move. This brings on a lot of horn-blowing and cursing and if a cop happens along, they get tickets. With traffic this bad, however, why not think of moving away from such a location?

Mister Jimmy
Hinesville, GA
US

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
I can so vouch for this story and these pics!
Last Friday we returned from Sandton to South of Jhb.
We drove via Braamfontein towards Selby through
town - as the M2 was backed up ... Big huge mistake.

I have never felt such stress or seen / experienced such lawlessness in my life. People (taxis and busses) blocking the intersections.

I am not lying when I say it took us 2 hours to move what is about 5 kilometres - it was highly stressful ...
taxis driving up on pavements through the park !!!

At one point before we got to CBD we were opposite Wits Univ. and we did not cross the intersection so as not to block other drivers when the lights changed - of course Mr Clever has to pull in front of us and block the road - at this point my Husband lost it and just started shouting with rage - our offenders retort was a sign language of *shooting at us * his hand in the shape of a gun.

It did not help having all the road works - but as I say we sat in this traffic for 2 hours and I have never experienced such high stress in my life and of course ... not one traffic police any where to be seen!!!!!!

The new fashion is driving on the wrong side of the road - man ... will get my camera for that one!!!

another exasperated person
Jhb
SA

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
What exactly is your point?
Have you ever driven in Naples, London, Rome or Dublin...
The drivers are white and the problems are much the same.
Maybe if you hate it so much you should just leave and live somwhere else

Nsaguy

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
boo hoo! This looks tame in comparison to any other developing country. Try doing a little travel - Thailand, India, China etc. The only reason things were so "orderly" before is due to segregation. There has to be some kind of "rebalancing" on the status quo after apartheid, even if it gets worse and not better. What do you expect?

soaringhawk

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
looks like detroit, or atlanta.

carter Weiseman

Date Posted: Friday 13-Mar-2009
Lol, just to add to that, the next worse group of drivers are white lady drivers! They are on par with the taxis! I have seen make -up being applied, eating, and general stupid driving from this group as well.

Flipside
SA

Date Posted: Thursday 12-Mar-2009
Hi Jo,
This did not happen in a white suburb but in the CBD (Inner City) of Johannesburg. It is a relatively regular occurrence in this portion.

Hi Pierre,
The transformation of SA is interesting. Since I go to the CBD a lot, I see a lot of it.

Most interesting though is the way Blacks and Whites view this differently. When we transferred to this part of the CBD last year I had an interesting experience. That part of the CBD is so dangerous (I must take some photos some time), that they have special security guards in that area walking around all the time and highly visible because it is such a crime hell hole. I repeat, they have SPECIAL SECURITY GUARDS ALL OVER because this area is so dangerous.

The whites who worked with me *HATED* the area because there were so many people and it had hawkers and it was so densely populated and so dangerous. But interestingly, blacks who worked with us, actually prefer this inner city to the suburbs! I kid you not. Some of the blacks I worked with preferred to work in the inner city because getting transport via taxis, etc was easier, and they liked it there. The whites (no matter how leftist their political leanings might be), HATED the place, especially because of the danger.

I actually saw, that when blacks had a chance, they prefered to work in the Inner city to the suburbs which are safer.

Of course, perhaps the inner city is only more dangerous for WHITES - or, MUCH MORE DANGEROUS FOR WHITES THAN FOR BLACKS (since even Blacks are victims of crime).

But it was interesting, the different perceptions.

And it is a chaotic place that is very lawless. Its not just the roads, it is the sidewalks too.

In terms of filth, its damned filthy. Among those buildings I photographed, with red writing on it, is a type of market. I once walked in there. I felt as if I was in central Africa.

Oh, and another thing, I assure you, often, if I walk those streets, you can't see a white person in sight. The city streets are very different. Yes, there are whites there, but depending on where you walk, you can easily walk long distances without seeing a single white person anywhere.

What really gets to me is the driving. The driving has been getting worse and worse until it is the hell you see now.

And when the traffic lights don't work (which is quite often), and you must treat the traffic lights as a 4-way stop, I've seen black taxis belting down the road WITHOUT EVEN MAKING AN ATTEMPT AT STOPPING.

When the traffic lights don't work I must admit I cringe a bit. I'm surprised I don't see more car accidents - fatal ones - because these guys just dash right through a non-working traffic light at full speed.

Some of those drivers should NOT have drivers' licenses.

Jan Lamprecht
Johannesburg
South Africa

Date Posted: Thursday 12-Mar-2009
I sent this link to AfriForum...

Jo
South Africa

Date Posted: Thursday 12-Mar-2009
i generally dont feel sorry for whites when this happens in white areas... yes this isstarting to occur in areas that were dominated by ordelry whites in the past. The taxis come into white areas to drop of maids and a black work force within the white communities

Jo
South Africa

Date Posted: Thursday 12-Mar-2009
No longer different to any other place on the African continent: In the past you could say if you have seen one, you have seen them all. Now South Africa, once clearly the only exception to that rule, is fully integrated!

Progress, ANC style: Free at last!

Pierre
Paris
France