Crime scares French workers

2007-11-02 10:02

Erika Gibson

Pretoria - Big French companies planning to invest in South Africa are considering whether workers should leave their families behind in France, due to the growing number of attacks on French citizens in the country.

Christian Bader, the French Consul-General said this on Thursday, following a criminal attack on French Military attaché Naval Captain Denis Fabré and his family.

They were held up by robbers at their house in Sandton on Monday morning.

Fabré, his wife and their children, aged seven and nine, were overpowered in the house, shoved around and tied up.

The robbers looted their house of its domestic appliances, packed everything into the family's car and sped off.

Bader said no-one had been injured, but the family of four had been badly traumatised.

'It is quite terrible'

"One expects of your senior diplomats to continue undisturbed with their work as representatives of France, but one can't tell a woman and children that they're not supposed to be upset. It is quite terrible," he said.

Bader said he fully understood the misgivings of French companies.

Preventive measures are usually considered in countries where there is a civil war or conflict - such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo a few years ago, or Iraq.

Bader said the families of employees were particularly vulnerable when the families were left at home alone during business trips.

Some embassies are considering housing their employees in closed security complexes, he added.

- Beeld