After spending a month at this apartment, I came back for a second stay about three weeks later. One week into my second stay, the apartment was burglarized and all of my valuables were taken (Apple laptop, passport, credit cards, etc.). The burglars found a way into the apartment building, kicked the door in, and stole as much as they could. They had also tried to get into a neighbor's apartment, even when they saw him inside. I'm lucky that I hadn't been inside, or it probably would've ended poorly for me.
Helga is a very nice woman and host, but this apartment was not sufficiently protected with proper safety measures/equipment. The door is a thin wood door that can easily be kicked down, and it should have had burglar bars in front of it (like many of the neighbors in the complex do). There are no cameras in the building, and it's not in the safest area of Salt River. All of my Capetonian friends were shocked that there were no burglar bars, alarm system, or any other typical security measures that most people take in Cape Town.
When I came back to the burglarized apartment, I immediately messaged Helga and asked her to call me. Instead of texting me back or calling me, I received no response until her husband and one of her sons showed up while I was giving my statement to the police (who were also shocked that the owners didn't have more security barriers). Helga eventually showed up to the apartment, but she was so late that the police had already left.
Aside from showing up late the night of the robbery, Helga was relatively helpful with everything else. However, her husband was incredibly frustrating during the entire process. The night of the robbery, he asked construction workers in the apartment next door to fix the kicked-in door and the lock without asking my opinion. Before I realized what was happening, they had already taken the lock apart and fixed the door, making it nearly impossible for the forensics officer to take fingerprints (they also had the apartment cleaned the next morning, adding insult to injury). When the forensics officer came to the apartment, Helga and her husband had the audacity to bring their small dog to the apartment. I was astounded, and I became quite angry when Helga's husband began making jokes and allowed the dog to roam around without a leash. He also tried to tell the forensics officer how to do his job and kept putting his fingers near the places where the forensics officer wanted to fingerprint. I was shocked at his lack of maturity and empathy. He made the situation about himself and showed very little concern in helping me get my things back. When I got upset with him, he even tried to put his hands on me to calm me down. He also began saying things about me in French to Helga, until I told him that I also spoke French (to his dismay).
Overall, I think Helga is a very nice person. She was helpful in retrieving a copy of the police report for me, and she offered to help in any way she could. However, I think she and her husband were negligent in renting an apartment in this location without providing the proper security measures or disclosing the fact that the apartment building is near a dangerous neighborhood (the building had already been burglarized twice in the past 1.5 years). After I moved out of the apartment to stay with a local friend, Helga asked me to move my things one night after the robbery occurred so she could re-list the space on airbnb. I was appalled that she would re-list the spot before burglar bars were to be installed, and that she would ask me to pack my things one night after I had lost $4000+ of valuables in her apartment. Simply negligent, and it felt like she cared more about making money off of the property rather than securing it for future guests (or letting me have a couple days to get over what happened).