Trump Was Right: What South Africa's Version of AAA Delivers Ahead of Repair Truck
The mainstream media recently made much ado about nothing regarding alleged comments made by President Donald Trump during a closed door discussion on the topic of immigration reform.
Though there remains debate as to whether Trump actually uttered the specific words or not, it was alleged he referred to certain countries — most notably places like Haiti and some countries in Africa — as “s***hole countries” another way to describe corrupt, destitute, filthy, crime-ridden or war-torn nations that people typically would prefer to flee from.
One nation in Africa that could arguably merit the label of “s***hole” is South Africa, and a special road-side service offered by that nation’s version of the American Automobile Association only seems to confirm that assertion.
The Automobile Association of South Africa offers similar road-side benefits and services as AAA, such as preferential insurance rates, road-side repair service, towing and emergency medical rescue, but there is one additional service they offer that doesn’t appear to be offered in America — (though in some “s***hole” locations it might be necessary).
The AA Stand By You service, which comes free for Advantage Plus members and is available for a small fee for regular members, will rapidly dispatch an armed security guard to a member’s location in the event of an accident or breakdown in order to protect that member from criminals while they wait for a certified repair technician or tow truck to arrive on scene.
The armed guard service is offered 24 hours a day, seven days a week in most major urban areas of South Africa, and is intended not only to keep the stranded member safe from personal crimes against them while they wait, but also to protect their vehicle from being carjacked or vandalized.
Lest one think this service is unnecessary or over-the-top, bear in mind that South Africa is indeed an extremely crime-ridden nation, according to statistics shared in 2017 by Africa Check, an African fact-checking site.
Those numbers were provided by the South African Police Service and cover April of 2016 through March of 2017, and they lay bare just how bad certain crimes are in South African cities.
In 2016/2017, there were 19,016 murders with a national average of 34.1 murders per every 100,000 people, though that rate is significantly higher in some locations. On average, 52.1 people are murdered in South Africa everyday.
There were 39,828 rapes during the same time frame, about 71.3 per 100,000, for a daily average of around 109.1 rapes. There were also 156,450 assaults during that period, an average of 428.6 per day.
There were about 146.4 common robberies per day — a total of 53,418 — but far more aggravated robberies in which the criminal used a weapon. Those aggravated robberies registered with 386.2 per day, for a total of 140.956, a six percent increase over the previous year.
As for crimes involving vehicles, police recorded a total of 16,717 carjackings, the highest number in ten years and a 14.5 percent increase over the prior reporting period. That averaged out to 45.8 carjackings per day, half of which occurred in one particular area.
There were also some 53.307 motorcycles and vehicles stolen during the 2016/2017 period, or about 146 every single day.
Thus, based on the numbers, you can see why some members of South Africa’s AA might feel the need to take up the company’s offer of armed guards to stand with them while they wait on their repair or tow service to arrive.
Given that some cities in America probably have similar crime statistics as those of South Africa, we can only wonder why our AAA doesn’t offer a similar service yet for members that live within our nation’s own s***holes.
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