Police in Nyanga are urging members of the public to think twice about venturing to Brown’s Farm amid an upsurge in robberies afflicting e-hailing drivers and marketplace sellers who drive out in response to online business call-outs.
Also read: Teens arrested for hijacking e-hailing cab driver
In September 2022, a 51-year-old Glecairn man died after he was stabbed during the ordeal.
Three suspects were arrested in September 2022 for another robbery in the area. Meanwhile, six teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 were also apprehended by the Nyanga crime prevention unit on 12 October 2022, for a similar robbery attempt in Brown’s Farm.
Cellphones confiscated from the arrested teenagers by police as part of their investigation into the attempted robbery revealed the suspects had been chatting with several potential victims.
A week thereafter, Nyanga police arrested a 17-year-old teenage girl after a man was robbed as he delivered Marketplace-advertised goods.
‘The majority of the robbery victims we interviewed as the police revealed they do not know the area at all,’ said Nyanga station commander Brigadier Lindiwe Dyantyi. ‘Some of the victims were even under the impression the area they were called out to was not a township but a farm’.
‘While the precinct experienced a slight decrease in reported cases after the September/October arrests, the incidents have gone up again. It is on this basis we caution both e-hailing drivers and online sellers to reconsider venturing out to Brown’s Farm,’ added Dyantyi.
Nyanga police, together with the local Community Police Forum and neighbourhood watch members, continue to patrol the identified hotspots, and deployments have increased.
On the community engagement front, the Nyanga police continually sensitise community members about reporting crime taking place in their precincts.
Anyone with information on the perpetrators of these robberies is urged to contact the police on 08600 10111.
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