Prince Harry's Chelsy joins South Africa crime victims

By Benita van Eyssen Sep 10, 2006, 13:39 GMT

Cape Town - Armed Robbery in South Africa has claimed its latest prominent victim in Prince Harry's girlfriend Chelsy Davy, who joined those in the wrong place at the wrong time when enjoying a drink and a chat with a friend in a wine bar as armed men stormed in.

The 20-year old Chelsy, who has been dating the British prince for some time, was one of seven patrons at the popular Cubana Latino Cafe in an upmarket Cape Town suburb at 11.20pm last Sunday.

Five well-dressed men brandishing guns and knives ordered patrons and staff to lie on the floor and moved from person to person - stripping everyone of jewellery, money, bank cards, car keys, mobile phones and other valuables.

The University of Cape Town student and the other victims reportedly remained calm and escaped unhurt during their hour-long ordeal after last rounds were called at about 11.20 pm last Sunday.

Some reports said the robbers roughed up the manager of the lounge venue that is popular among the city's chic young set, and just a few blocks from Davy's home.

The incident comes as restaurant and bar owners in some South African urban areas express fear that they are increasingly being seen as soft targets by criminals.

It also follows a similar incident in which the daughter of acclaimed South African author and academic Andre Brink fell victim, one that he has highlighted in the media in South Africa and France.

The Restaurant Association of South Africa recently said it had received 280 reports of restaurant robberies across the country, with some venues targeted more than once.

Cafes and bars that spill onto sidewalks in suburbs and major cities have been identified as particularly vulnerable in a country with a reputation for high and violent crime generally.

Often, according to the association's chief executive, robberies took place shortly before closing time and involved large gangs of up to 16 people who would enter the place, spread out and rob patrons simultaneously while also making off with cash from tills, waiter's tips and valuables.

In Johannesburg, where at least 140 robberies at restaurants have been reported this year, restauranteurs say they have been forced to review their security measures.

It is not uncommon to see city residents enjoying meals and drinks behind a steel gate at restaurants or steakhouses in some parts of the city. Security guards often guard the entrances and car parks.

In a recent interview, Manny Guedes, owner of a northeastern Johannesburg pizzeria told the Sunday Times that robberies were an ongoing problem - 'most restaurants have this problem.'

Brink recently went public about the incident at a restaurant in the town of Somerset West in the Cape, where his daughter and her husband were assaulted and locked in a storeroom during a robbery, sparking an outpouring from other South African crime victims across racial and class lines.

'And most of their stories eclipsed by far, in their scope and intensity, the little tale I'd told,' Brink noted, in an article published by the Cape Town-based Cape Argus newspaper.

The author added that he 'cannot escape the impression that there is a vast, intricate, steel network of violence tightening across this entire country and threatening it with strangulation'.

The author of 'A Dry White Season' also lashed out at authorities for 'arrogance' and 'cynicism' in the face of pleas from the public for an end to crime.

'Of course there is violence in all societies, all over the world. But the attitude of the people involved, and most particularly of the authorities in charge of ordering those societies and ensuring their safety, their very survival, seems to differ quite startlingly from what we find here,' he noted.