Reporter mugged while waiting to go live on air
Two muggers are caught on camera in South Africa robbing a reporter and his production team as they wait to do a live report outside a Johannesburg hospital.
Reporter Vuyo Mvoko was just seconds away from going live on the seven pm bulletin when two men, one armed with a gun, approached him, demanding that he hand over the mobile phone that he was holding having just spoken to the executive producer.
When he refused to give the first man the phone, Mvoko said the mugger called over his armed accomplice, saying “shoot this dog, or something like that.”
At this point a female colleague of Mvoko said “give him the phone”. Two other phones and a laptop computer were also snatched in the incident. The robbers then disappeared.
Mvoko had been waiting to report on the treatment being given to Zambian President Edgar Lungu at a Johannesburg hospital.
Crime worsening
Crime rates in South Africa remain shockingly high – last year 17,068 people were murdered in South Africa – a five percent increase on the year before, and a reversal of a 9.2 per cent decrease in the overall murder rate from 2004-5 to 2013-14.
Attempted murders were also up 4.6 per cent.
Politicians blamed widespread alcohol and drug abuse, and high levels of poverty and unemployment for the rise in crime.
