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I believe I may have identified the greatest threat facing foreign fans coming to South Africa for the World Cup. And no - it's not crime, or the volcano - although that It struck me this morning as I was driving my children to school on the northern edge of Johannesburg - roundabouts.

If you'll excuse a few broad generalisations, I find South Africans to be fairly polite drivers. Far less aggressive than Muscovites. Far more focused than Kenyans or Singaporeans. But confronted with a roundabout, things quickly seem to turn messy, and sometimes ugly here.

If you're planning to hire a car to travel between World Cup venues when you're visiting in June/July, watch out - South African roads can be dangerous at the best of times.

The majority of drivers here treat roundabouts like a four-way-stop. Traffic grinds to a halt as each driver waits his turn to enter the circle. No priority to the right, just first-come-first served. Then every once in a while someone uses their car, like a battering ram, to try to enforce a different set of the rules. Well, I speak of rules, but I'm not entirely sure what the law says on this matter here. I saw two fist-waving near-misses this morning as a result of this confusion. Any advice?

I understand where the four-way-stop habit has come from. For some reason, traffic lights in Johannesburg seem highly sensitive to rain. It is quite rare to make a journey without coming across at least one set of lights which are out of order. Whenever the lights are on the blink, Joburgers obediently switch to a highly regimented, one-at-a-time, pattern, regardless of whether they're on a dual carriage way or a dirt track. So the four-way-stop is king here.

But last week I was in the UK, and found myself gripped by uncertainty every time I approached a roundabout. "We're local so we know the score, but yes, foreigners need to be careful," a South African friend of mine said. I don't mean to be flippant about crime and the many other issues which could potentially undermine the World Cup, but I suspect the vast majority of visitors will have a fantastic, safe time here. Just watch out, as writes, if you're on the roads.

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