Hav­ing lived in South Africa my whole life, I’d say I know the place fairly well, and I also know the var­i­ous do’s and dont’s of the coun­try. So I thought I’d put together a list of things to do, and not to do for all the foot­ball fans trav­el­ling to SA for the FIFA soc­cer world cup 2010. I’m sure that some of these tips will be treated with scep­ti­cism, and some may even anger some peo­ple, but I am merely speak­ing from my expe­ri­ence after hav­ing lived here for 32 years. Use it, don’t use it, your choice, here goes.

1. Don’t walk around out­side at night. Ever. Espe­cially if you are alone.
2. If you hire a car, be aware at all times of your sur­round­ings. Here are some safety tips to pre­vent hijack­ing  from the South African Police Service.
3. If you are accosted, look at your assailants as lit­tle as pos­si­ble, don’t look them in the eye, and do EVERYTHING they say.
4. Beers in a pub or restau­rant gen­er­ally cost between R10 and R15. Be care­ful not to be ripped off. I’m sure many Eng­lish sup­port­ers will be stay­ing at Sun City, beers there are a rip off, usu­ally cost­ing between R25 and R30, so drink else­where or be pre­pared to cough up.
5. Hire a car dur­ing your stay if you can, SA has ter­ri­ble pub­lic transport.
6. South Africa has an offi­cial AIDS infec­tion rate of about 11%, though I believe it to be closer to 35%, so keep it in your pants at all times.
7. There is no need to go to the cen­tre of any city. Ever.
8. Try Boere­wors, you’ll love it. In fact, eat as much meat as you can while vis­it­ing, the meat in SA rocks.
9. Visit the Kruger National Park, you won’t regret it.

As I think of new items I’ll add them to the list, so keep check­ing back. Enjoy the football!