A television presenter and his camera crew were mugged as they prepared to deliver a live news report from outside a hospital in Johannesburg last night.
The cameras were already rolling for the 7pm bulletin when two men in T-shirts accosted Vuyo Mvoko, the presenter for broadcaster SABC, and allegedly threatened to shoot him if he did not hand over his mobile phone.
The unusual footage shows some scuffling as two mobiles and a laptop are handed over, before Mr Mvoko’s voice can be heard saying clearly: “We’re being mugged!”
The news team were reporting from outside Milpark Hospital following reports that President Lungu of Zambia was being treated there after traveling to South Africa for medical care.
No weapon is visible in the footage but Mr Mvoko said later in a SABC interview that one of the men threatened him with a gun when he did not immediately give up his phone.
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After the thieves left the journalist said he and his team called the police. Police said no arrests had been made by this morning.
The South African national editors’ forum appealed to anyone who recognised the assailants from the video footage to alert police to their identities.
“Every South African lives with the reality of crime but to see thugs brazenly ignoring television cameras and robbing media workers in the course of their work, yet again brings home the level of criminality in our society,” the editors’ group said in a statement.