By John Yeld and Ella Smook
Efforts to curb the worsening spate of robberies on Table Mountain are being hamstrung by a shortage of funds, with both the city and the province failing to answer pleas for extra cash.
The City of Cape Town has been stalling a request for R4-million from the Table Mountain National Park for more than nine months.
The mayoral committee member for economic development and tourism, Simon Grindrod, said on Tuesday he was in favour of funding security in the park.
But he admitted some councillors were still opposing the funding, as "leverage" to stop the harvesting of pine plantations in Tokai and Cecilia.
Grindrod repeated a call he made earlier in 2007 for the city to ask the army to help with patrols and training of security staff on the mountain.
The province has failed to respond to an urgent request for additional funding for visitor safety from the Table Mountain National Park.
But the latest attacks, with 15 people mugged in a single weekend, have authorities scrambling to organise a flurry of meetings to discuss how to tackle the crime crisis.
Finance and Tourism MEC Lynne Brown said on Tuesday she could not say whether the request for funding would be met, "because it is not clear at this stage if this is about money".
But she added: "We will, however, do whatever it takes to make sure that we find a way forward with all the role players, to make sure Table Mountain is a safe space for all who visit it."
Mayor Helen Zille expressed concern about the "very serious situation" on the mountain. She said she would discuss the matter on Tuesday with Grindrod, Mayco member for safety and security Dumisani Ximbi, and the chairperson of the safety and security portfolio, JP Smith.
"We have to look again at how we deploy our resources and whether our priorities are right," she said.
Zille suggested that the Metro Police could be used on the mountain. "We have to take an entire re-look at how they are deployed."
Community Safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane said on Tuesday he would meet the park's management to discuss the strengthening of the existing security arrangements.
"And with our partners at both levels the city and the SA Police Service we will also revisit our security plan. We must collectively ensure the safety of those who visit Table Mountain, both foreign and local visitors."
The TMNP assumed responsibility for visitor safety on the mountain after a 2004 incident in which a Japanese tourist was stabbed during a mugging in Platteklip Gorge, saying it was clear that the SAPS was not able to divert resources from other crime hotspots.
But it has not been able to meet all the costs out of its own budget, and last November asked the city to provide R10-million a year for four years, some of it earmarked for visitor safety.
Then in February, the park announced it would spend R15-million over the next four years to secure visitor safety, and asked the city and the province each for R4-million. But neither has yet agreed.
The park now wants R5,4-million from the city and R4-million from the province to boost the R15,36-million it has budgeted for anti-crime measures on the mountain between now and 2010.
It is also looking for increased co-operation with the SAPS to help TMNP officials counter muggings and robberies across the mountain chain.
"It's hard to be upbeat at this stage, and we're not essentially we need arrests," park manager Brett Myrdal conceded on Monday.
"But we're not sitting around. My team is really taking this personally, and they are hell-bent on getting some arrests and making examples to other criminals."
The issue of funding from the city will top the agenda of a meeting between the TMNP and the city scheduled for Thursday.
And on Tuesday the park will send out invitations to a workshop on September 19 where all the major partners will be asked to outline their particular "state of readiness" in dealing with visitor safety on the mountain.
Those invited include the police, city, province, Cape Town Tourism, Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the cableway company, the national office of SA National Parks, the TMNP forum, SA National Biodiversity Institute, and volunteers who help on the mountain.
Myrdal said the park needed further support from the police, not just in the form of extra manpower, but also through the use of enhanced anti-crime intelligence.
This should include identikit back-up and the use of the mobile fingerprint machine, he said. "We would like more support in making these available to the park."
Other measures the park wants to introduce through additional funding include increasing the number of CCTV cameras from four to "at least" four more and preferably to 12, and more than doubling the number of dog patrols, from five to 12.
The park would ask the private company Cybertracker to help it track criminals on the mountain, Myrdal added.