Durban -
Cyclists, walkers and runners are again becoming the targets of criminals using the M4’s Ellis Brown Viaduct near Blue Lagoon.
On Sunday morning two people were robbed while running across the bridge near the Riverside Road off-ramp.
This was before the East Coast Radio Big Walk 20km began.
Cyclist Anton Van Wyk said that the robbers hid behind the pillars at the end of the bridge, which leads to the mangrove swamps.
“They take advantage of the mangroves and bush around the river edge to make their escape,” he said.
He said a cyclist was knocked off his bike with a stick in January and held down by four teenagers.
They then robbed him of his phone.
“Cyclists have armed themselves with pocket knives and pepper spray. The attacks have been happening in the early morning on those who rode, walked or cycled before sunrise,” he said.
Van Wyk said many robberies were not reported to the police.
Earlier this month, the Rising Sun newspaper reported that two vagrants were found dead with stab wounds at Blue Lagoon.
In January, community newspaper Northglen News reported that a group of people, engaging in a team-building exercise, were robbed at knifepoint at the Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve.
Two were stabbed.
A month later, the same newspaper said the park was targeted by cable thieves who had used the conservation area as a safe way to gain access to the copper cables that run along the M4.
In 2012 the pedestrian bridge on the sea side of the Ellis Brown bridge collapsed after scrap metal thieves removed the metal supports.
Recently, the eThekwini Municipality has been encouraging people to cycle to and from work.
City officials have made the commitment to set up a network of new cycle lanes and pedestrian paths as part of a long-term plan to avoid traffic congestion.
One of the new routes, proposed in October last year, aims to link the city centre to Gateway shopping centre in uMhlanga, via Durban North.
Closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) have been installed to monitor traffic and crime in the Blue Lagoon area.
Police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, said he could not divulge crime prevention strategies but assured citizens the SAPS was working with metro police to arrest those responsible and to ensure quick response to crimes detected from the city’s CCTV room.
Daily News