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South Africa

Google Maps will no longer direct visitors through Cape Town township after attacks on motorists

Nyanga township and some routes to and from Cape Town International Airport are to be excluded from a navigation app as the fastest routes to and from the city.
Google Maps will no longer direct visitors through Cape Town township after attacks on motorists

Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille and Prof Alistair Mokoena, country director for Google South Africa, signed a collaborative agreement in Parliament on Monday aimed at promoting South Africa as a safe tourist destination.

This follows incidents of stone-throwing and attacks on motorists on and near the N2 in recent months.

On 3 November, a 55-year-old tourist from Connecticut in the US was shot in the face and robbed soon after leaving Cape Town International Airport. A navigation app on his phone reportedly indicated that the most direct route to Cape Town was through the Nyanga township, News24 reported.

At Monday’s signing of the agreement, Mokoena said Google had been in touch with city officials and had identified crime hotspots. These included Nyanga and the intersection at the airport, which would soon no longer be recommended by Google as the fastest routes to the city.

https://youtu.be/3dZIjZT7_wQ

Speaking to Daily Maverick at Parliament, Mokoena said Google considered driver and commuter safety to be a priority.

“Google is a tool to connect you with your destination in the fastest and safest possible time. So when it comes to recommending routes, we look at what is the fastest possible way to get you from point A to point B… we look at the nature of the road, the quality of the road – we also look at safety,” said Mokoena.

Mokoena said that “the first area [of] focus will be Nyanga because we have had a couple of incidents and seen an increase in violent crimes there.

“We want to make sure that we don’t have this sort of [thing] recurring. Recommendations have not yet gone live to exclude the Nyanga area route from the airport intersection as the fastest feature...

“We are working with all the role players, including car rental companies, to ensure that everybody is warned, everybody is given information, because once you have been given information, you are empowered to make informed decisions.

“We are coming in from a tech perspective, but the city is putting up signage… there will be a marketing and a comms campaign to alert people of dangers to ensure that we have a great tourism experience,” said Mokoena.

Read more on Daily Maverick: Visitors warned to be alert on Cape Town’s N2 ‘Hell Run’


  • In March 2023, Leonie van der Westhuizen died after a rock shattered the car window and struck her in the head, triggering cardiac arrest. The Van der Westhuizens were reportedly directed by Google Maps via Nyanga because their planned route was closed.

  • In July, a 21-year-old student from Inscape in Stellenbosch, Lucilla Vlok, had her jaw fractured when a rock was hurled through her car window while she was driving on the N2 to Cape Town International Airport.

  • Most recently, in October, Los Angeles couple Jason and Kate Zoladz were heading to Cape Town International Airport via Philippi when a brick shattered the car window, forcing them to stop. Four men approached their rental car and robbed them at gunpoint.


 

Cape Town's deadly route to the airport

‘It’s nothing new’


De Lille confirmed that the tourism department had developed a solution with Google.

“In terms of using technology, for me, it started way back in 2014 when the City of Cape Town became the most-desired city in the world.

“The first thing we did was to design an open data portal, which was also a first for the city. I made sure that we overlaid all our decisions, at all levels, at all departments in the city, with digital technology. That’s when I realised the value of this and how easy it is.

De Lille added: “For me, it’s nothing new. I think it is compulsory for government to use technology. I have just attended the world travel market in London, where they were speaking about artificial intelligence and how the tourism sector is using AI.

“The quicker we can pick up the technology, the better it will be for the sector,” she said. DM

Comments (6)

ashley@izingwe.com Nov 16, 2023, 05:11 AM

The minister is obviously talking rubbish.

jeanpiealumba@hotmail.com Nov 15, 2023, 10:16 PM

A Police Station should be established at that hot spot crime area. This will give tourists and the users of that section of the Road/area confident. It'll discourage also criminals to operate in that area.

Alan Jeffrey Nov 15, 2023, 07:45 AM

I agree with most of the comments here, however the reaction from people overseas is a little one sided. We know crime is bad in SA but look at some of the overseas newspapers as e,g, Mail Online. In the UK every day there are people stabbed to death especially in London. Muggings and swarm shoplifters run riot. In the USA, San Francisco and other cities have Zombie alleys crowded with druggies, and mass shootings are epidemic. It is no longer safe to visit Central Park in New York. Not minimising our problems but we are not alone. The world is becoming dangerous everywhere

Mark MA Nov 15, 2023, 11:42 PM

Alan, I disagree, the reality is that SA is now the 3rd worst country globally for murders per 100,000 people per year at 42 per 100,000. Only "beaten" by Jamaica and the US Virgin Islands. Double even Nigeria (22) and Venzuela (20) compared with 6.8 for the USA and 1.2 for the UK. So you ARE alone! Figures from Wikipedia based on UN Office of Drugs and Crime (search "murder rates globally"), so more reliable than Mail Online.

Steve Daniel Nov 14, 2023, 07:29 PM

Google maps - too often so very wrong. Waze - way way better, not yet perfect but interactive. Sincere condolences to our MUCH appreciated visitors…

Chris Narramore Nov 14, 2023, 04:07 PM

Don't forget that during Santaco taxi strike a visiting orthopaedic surgeon,Dr Kar Teoh, was brutally murdered in front of his wife and 2 year old child.

Beyond Fedup Nov 14, 2023, 03:46 PM

Well said Ben! There was also once a Railway Police and the DA has been asking for ages for control of our own police force, including running the railways. The anc and of course their partners in crime, effthieves, can't stand that the opposition runs the WC and it is run properly with clean audits versus the shambles, degradation, misery and destruction in the rest of the country that they "run". They will do all possible to sabotage the DA & WC - all these thieves, criminals and predators know is to steal, break and destroy. 13tomsel - the root of this problem is crime - brought with compliments to us all by none other than the anc and their fellow travelers, who have squandered, more like stolen, the enormous potential that this great country has when they took over and left it virtually a wasteland.