Turf wars between armed taxi drivers common

Violent turf wars are common between feuding cab drivers in Cape Town where taximen are sometimes armed and airport blockades are not the favourite means of protest.

For residents, the unwritten road code is that minibus cabs have the right of way - and red traffic lights don't always mean stop. This is a gleaming city - South Africa's finest, it is said - but edgy tension underscores the charm.

Amid petals in the white rose garden near a tourist golf course reads a stark warning: "Armed Response". It is a common sight in a land where airline passengers deposit weapons at the firearms desk in the airport.

Under Table Mountain, serried ranks of swish yachts line the bays, but barefoot children walk the streets downtown.

Observers say crime is the greatest problem facing the newly democratic state. There are corruption scandals too, anti-AIDS campaigns and creeping unemployment - three in 10 are jobless.

In the Good Hope conference centre this weekend, the Republic's training body, FAS, sought staff for the Irish boom which needs 200,000 new workers by 2006.

The mostly white South Africans who attended were seeking refuge from the post-apartheid slump. Some 20,000 came to see 16 Irish-based companies offer careers, relocation deals, tax tips and a chance to replace life in the sun with, well, less sun.

At a briefing, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said she assumed many would return home after a spell in the Republic. Yet a number of job-seekers told The Irish Times they wanted out for good.

Mr Frik Bosman, an agricultural consultant in his 40s, was one.

When asked why he wanted to move his wife and two children to Ireland, he said: "I think our economy is in a downward spiral at the moment."

Was this linked to the new political regime? "That might be part of the story. To a certain degree the government is trying to convince people of colour that it is acting in their interest. In our part of the country they are doing a lot of damage. That is why things are going the way they are."

Others were more positive about the African National Congress government led by Mr Nelson Mandela's successor, Mr Thabo Mbeki. Still, they wanted to leave.

These included Ms Helen Sherriff and her husband, Mr Gavin McPherson, who are thinking of selling their computer business to live in Ireland with their three children. A major consideration was that they wanted to live in a Catholic country, said Ms Sherriff.

Asked whether fear of crime was an issue, Mr McPherson said: "It's a factor, but not a determining factor."

"I am South African first and foremost. But we're reaching a point where our kids' future is more important," he said.

By contrast, Mr Brown Msakiwe and his wife Ms Eva Alex just want to experience a "new environment" for a couple of years.