DURBAN - Stone and rock throwers are continuing to target cars from bridges across freeways, with the latest reported incident on the N3 in Berea yesterday.
Dorian Kahlberg, 77, was met with what she recalls a “dull explosion” while passing under the pedestrian bridge on the city side of Tollgate Bridge early yesterday morning.
She spotted the person who she thinks was responsible for shattering her windscreen in two places, and also making a dent in her car’s bonnet.
“He was a light-skinned person wearing a black hat and a red shirt.”
Kahlberg immediately went to the nearby Mayville police station where there were no queues, and two officers who were “very sweet”, took her statement and inspected her car.
“But I said to them ‘if you send a van there now, you’ll find him’,” she said.
The incident follows a string of similar ones on
the N2 between uMhlanga and Ballito, including one that resulted in the death of two
children, Amina Haffejee,
16, and her 7-year-old
brother, Abdur Raheem.
“Over the past few days we have received many reports that show these incidents have become much more common,” said DA MP Dean Macpherson.
A reward of R250000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
Yesterday, national commissioner of police General Khehla Sitole, on a tour of Durban at the end of the festive season, called the throwing of stones on to freeways “just a new modus operandi”.
“We have picked it up and we have got deployments and we are putting it under control,” he said.
Provincial police spokeswoman Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said Mayville police were investigating a case of malicious damage to property.
“It is alleged that yesterday at 6.30am, the victim was driving her vehicle on the N3 freeway under the Tollgate bridge when she had a rock on her windscreen. No injuries were reported. Investigations are continuing.”