Robbers operating in the Fyfe Road park in Morningside are ambushing their victims by swinging from trees or emerging from holes.
Residents, from the Morningside Village flats and houses along Fyfe Road are afraid to leave their homes after more than 20 muggings in the park over the last six months.
One victim, Connie Jenneker, said she was on her way to work when two men, with knives, pounced from a tree and attacked her.
"I didn't even see them. I just heard their feet hitting the ground and, as they landed, they pulled out knives."
| Attacks from the air and the ground were isolated methods and not methods usually employed |
After threatening her the men made off with her cellphone, wedding ring and valuables from her handbag, she said.
Jenneker said the assailants then ran into an informal settlement below Fyfe Road.
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She said she had to assist a woman last week after she was robbed in the park while on her way to work.
"I was at the top of the steps and I saw one of the thieves walking past just pretending to be a passer-by and then coming from behind and attacking the woman."
Another victim was walking through the park and was attacked by armed men who had hidden in a tiny crevice adjacent to a flight of stairs.
| 'Police are doing everything in their power to curb the crime' |
Two armed men pounced from underneath her as she was approaching the staircase. In this case the assailants also ran and disappeared into the maze of informal dwellings.
Residents say the attacks have been continuous since 2001 and some said the criminals were employing the same modus operandi they had used three years ago. Morningside Village resident Shamila Sthewari said her son was attacked in a similar way to Jenneker in 2001.
"My son was coming back from university when the robbers jumped out of the tree and attacked him. They took his bag and his books," she said.
Sthewari said after a spate of incidents in 2001 police had conducted a raid in the informal settlement and had recovered a number of items.
Durban South police spokesperson Vincent Mdunge said police had not encountered such a modus operandi before.
He said both the attacks from the air and the ground were isolated methods and not methods usually employed by criminals.
Residents believe police are not doing enough to combat the crime and are threatening to take the law into their own hands by attacking people who are identified by victims.
"When I laid a charge and the police came they told residents that they could not go into the informal settlement because it was like a maze," said Jenneker.
Residents are now threatening to take the law into their own hands and attack people who are identified by victims.
Jenneker said three women had all given similar descriptions of a man with dreadlocks, who they believed had robbed them.
Mdunge has strongly discouraged vigilante actions.
"That would be a very dangerous scenario and there will be repercussions because that would amount to vigilantism.
"Police are doing everything in their power to curb the crime and there are contingency plans that will be implemented across the Durban South area."
- This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on November 26, 2004
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