Ratings follow the clock
Every area is rated three times over: daytime, evening and night. The route you get at noon is not the one you get at 11pm.
Lower-risk routes for South African drivers
Go where the
trouble isn’t.
Most maps work out the quickest way there. Tsamaya also works out what you would be driving through, and steers you around the areas where vehicle crime actually happens. (say: tsa-MAH-ya. It is Sesotho and Setswana for “go”.)
Lower risk is not no risk. Stay alert either way.
12metros mapped
4,396risk zones
2,180checked corridors
3risk bands by time of day
Why it exists
The fastest way there is not always the one you want.
Hijackings, smash-and-grabs and robberies cluster in particular places, and those places change between lunchtime and midnight. A route planned only for speed will take you through them without mentioning it. Tsamaya weighs that up before it sends you anywhere.
- Routes around the top two risk levels, not only around traffic
- Ratings change between day, evening and night, so the route does too
- Built from published crime statistics, then corrected by people who drive here
- Drive it in the app, or hand the route to Google Maps
How it works
Three quick steps
1
Set your destination
Search for it, tap the map, or press and hold to drop a pin. Your starting point is wherever you are.
2
We check the route
We take the quickest route and test it against every rated area, using the ratings that apply at this hour.
3
Re-routed around risk
If it runs through a high-risk area, we move it onto roads we have checked, and tell you what we moved it around.
Where it works
4,396 mapped risk zones across 12 metros.
Every figure here is read from the live database rather than typed into the page. Zone counts follow how big and dense a metro is. Stellenbosch has 32 zones because it is a small town, not because it is half-finished.
What’s inside
A proper navigation app that happens to think about risk.
Roads we have checked
When a detour is needed, it runs along roads we have checked, which keeps it sensible rather than sending you down a back street.
Detours with a limit
Only the top two risk levels are worth going around, and any detour that adds too much gets thrown out before you ever see it.
Multi-metro
Live in 12 metros across six provinces, from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Durban and Gqeberha.
Drive it however you like
Full turn-by-turn is built in. If you would rather use Google Maps, we hand it the route with the detour points already in place.
Look before you go
Turn the overlay on whenever you want and see every rated area and road on the map, colour-coded.
The trade-off
It usually costs you a few minutes.
A detour only gets offered if it actually cuts your exposure, and one that adds too much distance is thrown out even when it carries less risk. Without that limit you would be handed detours nobody would ever drive.
When there is no good alternative, Tsamaya says so and gives you the normal route with the risky stretches marked. It will not invent a detour just to look busy.
- Direct route 16 min
- Lower-risk route 19 min
See it in action
From “Where to?” to a lower-risk route in two taps.
Pick a destination, hit Go, and Tsamaya compares the direct line against a route built around risk, then tells you which areas it kept you out of.
Questions
Common questions
What is Tsamaya?
A free navigation app for South African drivers. It plans routes around the places where vehicle crime is known to happen, instead of only working out the quickest way there. It is in open beta on iPhone and Android at the moment.
Where does the risk data come from?
Published South African crime statistics, scored against map data to work out where vehicle crime concentrates. Everything then gets reviewed and corrected against local knowledge before it goes anywhere near the app.
Which cities does it cover?
Tsamaya currently maps 12 metros: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Ekurhuleni, West Rand, Secunda, Stellenbosch, Rustenburg, Pilanesberg, Mossel Bay, Durban, Gqeberha. Outside those areas it still works as an ordinary map and turn-by-turn navigator; it just has no risk data to apply.
Does a lower-risk route take much longer?
Usually a few minutes. A detour is only offered when it cuts your exposure, and anything dramatically longer than the direct route is rejected outright.
Is Tsamaya free?
Yes. It is paid for out of pocket, with help from anyone who chips in. There are no ads, and we do not sell anything about you.
Does it guarantee I will be safe?
No, and we will never tell you otherwise. Tsamaya cuts your exposure to areas with a history of vehicle crime. Crime is not predictable, and no route is safe. Treat it as better information for the choice you were going to make anyway, and stay alert.
Want to help map the next metro?
Tsamaya is independent and self-funded. There are free ways to help, and there is a bank account if you would rather chip in.