Shanti Aboobaker
Community Safety MEC Dan Plato has called on the public to help eradicate crime on the city’s mountains.
“The police can’t do it alone. Our message to the citizens is they must assist the police in reporting suspicious activity and crime,” he said at yesterday’s Safe Mountain Day organised by his department.
“It must be everyone’s role. Too much emphasis is placed on what the SAPS must do.
“Our message to walkers and cyclists is: don’t walk or cycle alone. Do it in groups and keep the phone numbers of the police and park rangers on you.”
The Safe Mountain Day is aimed at increasing awareness of the safety plan for Table Mountain through the Table Mountain Forum.
The forum was established in February after the Cape Times reported 412 crimes over 11 years, with a steep increase in number of attacks in the past three years.
The reports led to then community safety MEC Albert Fritz convening the forum.
It consists of members of the Community Safety Department, law enforcement agencies, SA National Parks (SANParks) and a number of civil society formations and volunteers, including the Table Mountain Safety Action Group.
But Newlands resident Craig Irving was not impressed by the Community Safety Department’s initiative.
Irving, a cyclist, was attacked last Thursday above Rhodes Memorial, where two men accosted him.
One of the men was wielding a knife, the other a brick.
“What concerned me at the time was that SANParks did absolutely nothing and the police arrived an hour later,” he said. “The main question I have is: ‘Who’s accountable?”
In April the Cape Times reported that the number of Table Mountain National Park rangers would be doubled immediately from 43.
Yesterday Merle Collins, the spokeswoman for the Table Mountain National Park, said that 14 new rangers had been appointed.
Three of the five additional dogs that were promised in April have been deployed, bringing the total number of dogs to eight.
Frank Waters, who frequents Deer Park in Vredehoek, said he thought armed guards on the mountain were a good idea.
He said the park was patrolled by the Devil’s Peak Vredehoek Neighbourhood Watch (DPVNW), a community initiative.
“The DPVNW is a voluntary service. We all carry radios and call in if we have a problem,” he said.
“My wife walks alone three times a week. She feels safe.”
Also in Deer Park, Heidi Marongiu said she never walked alone.
“I live in Vredehoek and this trail is beautiful all year round. I’d do this walk more often if the trail was patrolled more often.”
JP Smith, the Mayco member for safety and security, said the city did not have the resources to dispatch metro police all over the mountain.
“The Cape Flats remains our priority.”
He said areas including Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and Manenberg would receive “the maximum of our resources”.
“If you work out the ratio of criminal incidents on Table Mountain to the number of criminal incidents in those areas, that’s the ratio at which we should be dispatching metro police resources such as police and our equestrian teams, for example.” – Independent Cadet News Agency
shanti.aboobaker@inl.co.za