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The incident is just one of scores of often violent crimes,
including rape, robberies and murder recorded every day in
Africa's most advanced economy, earning it a place among the
most violent countries in the world outside a war zone.
The video, which went viral on the Internet, shows the men
pacing around reporter Vuyo Mvoko while he speaks to the camera
outside the hospital, before a scuffle ensues, and then Mvoko is
heard shouting: "Hey, we're being mugged."
Mvoko was reporting on the arrival of Zambia's Lungu, 58, at a
Johannesburg hospital for medical tests after he fell ill at the
weekend with a suspected narrowing of the food pipe.
"He was looking for the phone and when I wasn't giving him the
phone, he calls the other one who has a gun, to say: 'shoot this
dog' or something like that," Mvoko, who works for the national
broadcaster, told radio station 702 on Wednesday.
"So I gave him the phone."
Police spokeswoman Colonel Noxolo Kweza was not available for
comment, but the government condemned the attack.
"Government has intensified the fight against crime to protect
the rights of citizens ... and will continue in its efforts to
reduce crime to ensure that all people who live in South Africa
are, and feel safe."
The mugging came a day after a popular South African hip hop
artist Nkululeko Habedi was killed when his girlfriend allegedly
stabbed him on Monday, according to police.
Last year, South Africa's football association launched a gun
control campaign in the wake of the high profile shootings of
the national team captain Senzo Meyiwa, and model Reeva
Steenkamp who was killed in 2013 by her Paralympic boyfriend
Oscar Pistorius.
(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Joe Brock and James
Macharia)
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