Cape Town - Numerous safety and environmental groups around Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) are fed up with SANParks’s promises and its ineffective safety measures after a spike in attacks, muggings and theft at its facilities, parks and walking trails.
This frustration boiled over after an attack along the Kleinplaas Dam hiking trail near Simon’s Town, when 10 to 12 panga-wielding men attacked a group of hikers.
Table Mountain Watch (TMW) chairperson Andre van Schalkwyk said there had been nine attacks in the Kleinplaas Dam area since August 2020, which made the area a known hot spot, and the attacks often resulted in physical injuries and mental trauma.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said in Sunday’s attack, two cellphones and a backpack were taken from the victims after they were threatened with pangas by the suspects; no arrest had yet been made.
“As we see the disaster management measures being relaxed, we see a definite upsurge in crime of all kinds within and on the borders of TMNP. Our focus is that of contact crimes or ‘muggings’, as they are called.
“These are serious crimes and have a direct impact on local and overseas visitors and their perception of not only TMNP, but also of the country,” Van Schalkwyk said.
Parkscape founder Nicky Schmidt said opportunistic crime became a reality under the circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic and this was seen with car-jammings and vehicle break-ins, but then there were also incidents such as those at Kleinplaas that, despite it being a known hot spot, they did not get addressed.
“A while back at a media junket, SANParks told us how they had rangers in hiding at Kleinplaas to prevent attacks. But there have been nine attacks since August, so where are these rangers? Where are the Seam (Sea, Air and Mountain) team that were made operational in December,?” Schmidt asked.
Schmidt said SANParks made numerous promises, boasted of apprehending abalone poachers, and of surveillance helicopters in the sky, but the issues of safety, of people getting hurt and traumatised, continued.
Friends of Table Mountain (FOTM) chairperson Andy Davies said: “SANParks staff have stated that Kleinplaas Dam is City-managed property and they won’t be commenting on matters outside the park. It is very disappointing that SANParks are trying to deflect the responsibility on others when they clearly have the responsibility to ensure the safety of visitors to Kleinplaas Dam.”
Davies added safety and security in TMNP was a major concern and the current safety measures by SANParks were ineffective considering the increase in attacks and crime. FOTM believed a lot more needed to be done as TMNP was an urban park and would always undergo the risk of crime.
Since 2006, Van Schalkwyk said there had been various attempts made to create action groups (TMW has been through three iterations) and each time the groups were disbanded due to lack of substantial progress with TMNP management.
Van Schalkwyk said the recently established Park Forum also proved to be a damp squib, with no progress over the past eight months.
SANParks spokesperson Lauren Clayton said an internal investigation was being conducted into the matter surrounding the Kleinplaas Dam.
“We do regular joint operations with the police, surveillance with the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, so we are linked to their camera system should anything arise. We also have joint operations with neighbourhood watch groups, other hiking and safety groups who undertake operations in hot spot areas,” Clayton said.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za