mugging on main road

On saturday, I had what I would consider the archetypal Capetonian day: in the morning, I went with my friends to a weekly farmer's market in Woodstock, a neighborhood near mine, full of organic produce and beautiful dresses made from Nigerian linen and rooibos iced tea in mason jars. You come out of this charming market in a revamped mill thinking what a cool, cosmopolitan and uniquely charming city this is. Then off to a concert at Kirstenbosch, the botanical gardens, and again you are just overwhelmed by Cape Town's beauty and vibrancy. And then, naturally, on the way back from the video store you see someone being violently mugged across the street from you. It all happened very very quickly but the mugger was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempt to steal this young man's cell phone though there was a fairly scary tussle involving pepper spray where we think that after spraying his attacker, the victim had it pulled away and used on him. There were five of us on the other side of the street, me, two of my friends and a couple we didn't know. The male half of that couple ran across the street and as soon as the mugger realized there were people watching he took off. But the audacity of the crime really terrified me; there were cars everywhere and obviously people on the streets and it couldn't have been later than 8:30. Very unnerving.