Cape Town - Overgrown vegetation along Jan Smuts Drive in Athlone has been blamed for the increase in cases of stone-throwing at vehicles that have left unsuspecting drivers traumatised.
More than five vehicles were stoned along the road on Wednesday night alone, leaving drivers and their passengers shaken.
Aziz Osman, who said he was the first victim, was driving on the road before 10pm when a stone smashed the driver’s side of the windscreen and hit his neck.
Osman said that at the time of the incident, all the street lights on the road were off. He said he was not injured because the windscreen was made of shatter-proof glass.
Another victim, Augustine Engel, who was with her sister at the time, said the incident left them shaken.
Engel said that while they were waiting at the police station, six other drivers reported their smashed cars from the same location in a period of 45 minutes.
“We requested the police to immediately patrol the location to catch the criminals in action, but to no avail. Had this been done they would have caught them as more victims came after us, also with their cars smashed,” she said.
Al Jama-ah PR councillor Shameemah Salie said multiple C3 notices had been logged to the City for the trees to be trimmed and requests for law enforcement patrols, including reports to the police, but to no avail.
Salie said this had been ongoing for more than two weeks, but had escalated as the criminals had become more brazen. Salie said their modus operandi was to throw stones at the cars to create damage that would force them to stop and be robbed.
Community Policing Forum chairperson Sharon Classen said this was not a matter for the police but was directly linked to the lack of service from the City.
“The vegetation on the centre island is overgrown and needs to be cut back. I have escalated this to the ward councillor.
“In addition to this, the street lights along that road have been off for quite some time. The City needs to ensure motorists using that route do not fall prey to incidents of this nature – cut back the bushes, and then there is no place to hide,” she said.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said Athlone police registered cases of malicious damage to property for further investigation. He said the unknown suspects who fled the scene in both instances were yet to be arrested.
The City could not respond by the time of deadline.