DURBAN - A BREAKTHROUGH has been made in Durban’s spate of rock-throwing cases, with the arrest of a 26-year-old man near the Tollgate Bridge in Berea.
Police believe the suspect is linked to several other rock-throwing incidents.
His arrest followed two incidents of cars being struck by rocks on the N3 under the Tollgate Bridge yesterday and three pedestrians who witnessed the incidents apprehended the suspect before police arrived.
Laphale Mbusu, who was on his way home to Seaview, in a red VW Polo, was the first victim.
“I was driving home around 6am when the incident occurred. The rock (almost soccer-ball size) hit my windscreen. Luckily, I managed to control the vehicle. I was unharmed, but it felt like a near-death escape,” said Mbusu.
He added that after he had pulled over, a white Isuzu bakkie (driven by Penwell Khanyile) was also struck by a large rock. Mbusu said he immediately alerted the metro police control room.
Metro police spokesperson Sewpersad Parboo said that when officers arrived at the bridge, a suspect was being pinned down on the pavement by three men who had witnessed the incidents.
The man was arrested and taken in for questioning.
Police investigations have established that he was a resident of nearby Cato Manor settlement, believed to have been in multiple rock-throwing incidents since November 2017, including on the M19, N2 and M7 near the Rossburgh Bridge. Sewpersad said the unemployed suspect told police his motive was not robbery, but “personal satisfaction from damaging vehicles”.
SAPS spokesperson Lieutenant Nqobile Gwala said the suspect, who is currently detained at Mayville police station, has been charged with malicious damage to property and will appear in court on Monday.
Sewpersad said visible policing has been increased near bridges and “nobody is allowed to stand on the top of a bridge. If they are caught, they will be charged for loitering”. I
In January, police arrested two suspected rock throwers near Riverhorse Valley and another in Pietermaritzburg late last year. In December, siblings Abdur Rahim and Amina Haffejee were killed when a rock thrown from a bridge on the N2 near Tongaat hit the vehicle they were travelling in.