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World-renowned tuberculosis (TB) expert David Russell was attacked and robbed at gunpoint in Philippi, Cape Town, and says he will probably never return to South Africa, News24 reports.
Russell used Apple Maps for guidance from Simon’s Town to Cape Town International Airport to drop off his rental car, but the navigation app took him through Philippi — one of the most crime-ridden suburbs in the Mother City.
While stopped at a set of traffic lights in the area, Russell suddenly heard the driver’s side window shatter and said three men surrounded his car before he could react.
Two robbers immediately started punching and beating Russell to the point that his vision became blurry, while the third focused on grabbing his valuables.
One of the men pulled out a gun and instructed him to get out of the vehicle. Refusing, Russell screamed for help, and the thieves only fled when a group of residents rushed to help him.
Still shaken and fearing for his life, Russell turned on his rental’s ignition and fled the area without accepting aid from the residents.
He received medical attention upon returning the vehicle, and the police were called. However, Russell slammed the South African Police Service in Cape Town for a lack of urgency and being seemingly uninterested in catching the criminals.
He told News24 that he didn’t recall police taking down any of the information he provided. They also weren’t interested in the fact that he could track the location of his stolen phone using his laptop through Apple’s FindMy service.
Russell added that he is yet to hear anything from the police, describing their effort as “pathetic, to say the least”.
He also questioned why there were no signs to warn visitors that they were entering a high-crime area.
Russell’s complaint echoed those raised a month earlier when another US man was attacked in Nyanga after following a route suggested by his navigation app.
In early November 2023, another US resident and tourist in South Africa, Walter Fischel, was shot in the face in a similar incident in Nyanga.
Fischel’s navigation app suggested he cut through the township to avoid heavy traffic. He survived the ordeal, which saw four men approach his car, one of whom shot him through the jaw when he instinctively grabbed for his belongings.
It is unclear whether he used Google Maps, Waze (which Google owns), Apple Maps, or another app.
To avoid situations like this, some navigation app providers are working with the local government to ensure their apps don’t guide users to crime hotspots.
Alistair Mokoena, Google country director for South AfricaIn November 2023, it was revealed that Google Maps would start avoiding high-crime areas in the country.
South Africa’s tourism minister Patricia de Lille and Google country director Alistair Mokoena signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday, 13 November.
While the memorandum didn’t explicitly mention directing users around crime hotspots, Mokoena said Google is in discussions with officials to offer such a feature.
Mokoena said Google is working with the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Transport MEC, the mayor’s office, and the head of Cape Town tourism to identify high-crime areas in the region.
“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, the surface of the road, we look at safety,” said Mokoena.
“By ‘safe’, I mean routes that have not been declared by the City and authorities as crime hotspots, because we can only work with information that’s currently available.”
He said Nyanga — the township in which Fischel was shot — would be the first focus area, as several incidents have occurred in the area.
“Then we’ll look at a more kind of national solution, which is looking at the crime hotspots around the country,” Mokoena added.
“I believe there’s 59 of those.”
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