Pretoria - Criminals continue to terrorise visitors to the Klapperkop Nature Reserve because “not enough is done to uproot 'tactical' criminals from the reserve”.
This view was expressed by anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee and ward councillor Shaun Wilkinson, who spoke to the Pretoria News from different locations yesterday.
Abramjee and Wilkinson said they were disappointed that after scores of complaints about crime in the reserve, a young woman, 19, was stabbed and robbed of her cellphone in the area on Thursday.
“The young woman stopped to take photos of the beautiful sunrise when a man approached and attacked her. She waited there with security officials who arrived to help after learning about what happened to her. However, they waited for the police for two hours and the police still didn’t come.
“That’s when she gave up and said she wasn’t even going to bother opening a case. You can imagine after two hours you’d also feel like opening a case is going to be useless. This is simple: law enforcement is not doing enough there,” Abramjee said. “Criminals continue to attack and rob people and then get away with the crime. This cannot be acceptable,” he charged.
Wilkinson said he was organising an urgent meeting with all involved stakeholders from businesses, the City, the SAPS, the metro police, private security and the Department of Tourism to revisit this situation.
Wilkinson said: “We no longer want a situation where a person says 'Im looking out only for my side of the fence' because that way criminals are just going to win this battle. We’ve had patrols increased and security measures put in place but it’s clear there is still more that needs to be done.
“This situation is bad to the extent that these criminals have posed as joggers just to follow groups of joggers and eventually attack and rob a jogger who was left behind.
“They keep changing their modus operandi. Once they see that policing and patrols have intensified, they pull back, but they come back again when it is least expected.”
MMC for Community Safety Karen Meyers and Brooklyn police spokesperson Colette Weilbach said security measures were put in place to make the place safer when people started complaining about crime in the area.
Meyers said: “The Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) does deploy the Equestrian Unit as often as possible to do patrols on horses. Members on horses patrol the fence and the bicycle route which is inaccessible for police members in vehicles.
“Special operations also do visible patrol on the main routes through the reserve and at the viewing points. The TMPD bicycle unit also has a huge impact in the area to increase visibility and give a sense of security to cyclists in the reserve.”