Cape Town - A twenty-one-year-old Bo-Kaap man was arrested after his attempt to rob a female tourist was captured on her cellphone camera.
He is expected to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court today after his arrest on Friday.
The man, who is believed to be involved in a series of robbery incidents in the Bo-Kaap area, was captured in a video by a South Korean tourist who was filming while walking down Chiappini Street.
He is said to be one of the Wale Street car guards who had for some time been targeting the elderly and tourists, especially women. The man allegedly has a fixed residence in Bonteheuwel but lives in one of the tented camps in the Bo-Kaap area.
Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said the man handed himself over to police and was placed under arrest. Pojie said he was scheduled to make his first court appearance on a charge of attempted robbery today.
In the 42-second video that has gone viral, the man was captured attacking a 28-year-old South Korean female tourist from behind. He can be seen strangling the woman while attempting to reach for her cellphone. As the woman screams for help, a man appears and rescues her as the perpetrator runs away.
Following the incident, joint operations were conducted by police and the City’s law enforcement to identify the suspect. City safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith said the victim was also located shortly before departing from the country and agreed to register a criminal docket
While the area has had few much-publicised incidents of tourist robberies in the past three years, in 2019 it saw one in which a French tourist was stabbed in the neck. The response of the community to the recent incident, however, suggests that this has been ongoing.
Community members who came out to tell of other robbery incidents in the area said these had become brazen, Another resident pointed out that the arrested 21-year-old, who was known to hang around a shop on the corner of Rose and Hellinger Lane, robbed a guest of his last weekend.
He said the man was caught but released 20 minutes later.
Bo-Kaap Neighbourhood Watch chairperson Ebrahim Christian said the perpetrator hardly ever robbed residents from the area, but pounced on unsuspecting tourists.
Christian said tourism agencies always warned tourists to be safe when in Cape Town, and they also warned them not to navigate other areas without guides.
He said the community was now agitated by these robberies.
Bo-Kaap Civic and Ratepayers Association chairperson Osman Shaboodien welcomed the arrest and the extra police and law enforcement patrols in the area.