In January 2017, following a riot in which several juvenile inmates escaped from a correctional facility, Guy criticised the state government by remarking several times that "This is a government who is standing by and allowing Melbourne to become the Johannesburg of the South Pacific." These comments attracted attention from the governing party of South Africa, the African National Congress, which released a statement describing Guy's comments as "unfortunate". The statement also said "These comments are regrettable, and feed into lazy stereotypes of African cities as crime havens. They serve to tarnish the reputation of the City of Johannesburg – known widely as the gateway to Africa; and regularly cited amongst several indices as world-class city". After the Australian High Commission in South Africa distanced itself from Guy's comments, he responded by stating "I am more interested in solving Victoria's crime wave than responding to press releases from South Africa's left wing ANC political party".