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2008-01-12
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Tour operators grow paranoid as armed criminals lie in wait.

Gun-toting gangsters have robbed at least five international tour groups in Joburg in the past week.

And tour company operators fear that their clients are falling victim to organised syndicates who have "inside"knowledge about their movements and lie in wait for them at five-star hotels.

Some of the tour groups have been attacked en route to their hotels from OR Tambo International Airport and others have even been robbed in hotel lobbies.

Tour company owners told Metro that:

At 8am last Sunday, a group of foreign guests was robbed, allegedly in front of the Protea Wanderers reception. The gunmen fled with laptops, wallets, passports and cellphones. A spokesman for Norwood Police Station, Constable Patricia Kekana, said the hotel had supplied police with closed-circuit TV footage of the crime;

The same day, tourists were robbed at the Hilton Hotel and again robbers made off with luggage, laptops, cameras, wallets and cellphones;

Another tourist was robbed in Houghton after being fetched from the airport. Robbers allegedly followed the tour operator and his client from the airport. They forced them off the road at gunpoint and took luggage, money and the client's passport;

On Wednesday, a number of tourists were robbed of their luggage and all their personal belongings as they arrived at the Formula 1 Hotel in Wynberg; and

Similar incidents are said to have taken place at the exclusive Saxon Hotel and the Town Lodge in Grayston Drive last week.

To stop tour operators following them after the crimes, the robbers force them to hand over the keys to their tour buses.

Tour operators say that armed gangs often lie in wait for them.

James Ramovha, who runs Jameson Tours and Transfers, said there was an ever-present threat.

"On many occasions, we find the robbers waiting for us at the gate of the hotel or the house to where we are transporting our clients,"he said.

Tour operator Josh Mdluli said that one of his clients, Kenyan John Mugabe, who was with his wife and children, was robbed of all his luggage after flying in on company business from Kenya.

Mdluli said they were robbed when they arrived at the company house where Mugabe was due to stay in Waterkloof.

"Five men came in from the opposite direction as we were getting out of the car,"he said.

He said that in most cases, the robbers appeared to know what valuables the tourists were carrying.

"We are not pointing fingers but we are suspicious that someone is giving these robbers inside information,"he said.

A police spokesman, Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht, said two suspects were taken in for questioning on Wednesday after they followed a tourist from the airport.

Mdluli said the robbers were clearly well-organised.

"These guys are in syndicates who are getting away with everything."

Another operator, Midas Thibela, the owner of Mesh Tours, said tour operators were becoming increasingly paranoid. "We always find these guys waiting for us at the gate. How do they know we are coming?"

Repeated attempts to obtain comment from the managers of the Saxon, Hilton, Formula 1, Town Lodge and Protea Wanderers failed this week.