How does one ascertain crime rates affecting foreign shopkeepers when victims have fled and official public records on crime affecting them do not exist? I had more or less resigned myself to having to rely on foreign traders’ repeated accounts of relentless violence to highlight their susceptibility to crime when unexpectedly a window of opportunity opened, yielding a significant new and interesting insight.

In October 2011, the SAPS Western Cape office emailed me with the good news that an application I had submitted to interview police officers in Cape Town had been approved. I had almost given up on receiving an outcome, having sent the application eight months prior, and receiving little feedback from my several follow-up enquiries. I contacted the office in reply, which then set to work immediately. It put me in touch with relevant station commanders who promptly met with me and introduced me to police officials who could help. Police sector managers happily included me on patrols and put me in touch with community leaders they knew. SAPS’ initial evasiveness was now inverted, and the organisation opened its doors to me in welcome. This was a far more effective strategy than the initial response I’d been met with. It made it more difficult for me to paint the police with a broad brush, and allowed for a more varied and complex picture of their roles and predicaments to emerge.

On the morning of 25 October 2011, the station commander of Khayelitsha police station guided me eagerly through the face-brick station building and led me to a small bright office. A police officer peered up at me from behind a bulky desktop computer. A large clear window opened up on the room. A backdrop of Table Mountain and the dilapidated homes and green spring shrubbery of the Cape Flats shone through it. I sat down and introduced myself in a friendly but neutral manner, trying not to seem nonchalant on the one hand or overeager on the other. I was afraid that if I spoke in the wrong tone or pitch, this would somehow raise suspicion and possibly dash an opportunity to obtain crucial data.

But my concerns were unwarranted. ‘Yes, we have records of crime affecting foreign shopkeepers in Khayelitsha,’ the officer advised enthusiastically. ‘You will get a heart attack if you see the numbers.’