Volunteers from several neighbourhood watches and non-profit groups joined SANParks ranger patrol this past weekend due to an increase in muggings on Signal Hill.
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Volunteers from Take Back Our Mountain (TBOM) and members from the Tamboerskloof and Lion Street neighbourhood watches joined visitor safety rangers on the mountain between 4:30pm and 7:30pm on Friday, March 31 and Saturday 1 April, in a bid to deter criminal opportunists from taking advantage of the sunset shift change.
Taahir Osman, founder of TBOM, says the group recorded eight muggings in the area over the past month, all occurring between Bo Kaap, Tamboerskloof and Sea Point, with the latest happening on the evening of Friday, March 31.
‘I think muggers are aware of the sunrise and sunset shift change in the park. That is when they have been attacking the mountain users. So a few visitor rangers and TBOM volunteers went out during the sunset shift change. The rangers came in earlier to work, and some of them who were on standby, offered their time to come and patrol with us.’
According to News24, hikers are typically ambushed by three to four muggers armed with knives. Osman believes that the perpetrators are youths living in the Bo Kaap, the Schotsche Kloof area, and in informal structures on the mountain slopes. He adds that the muggings tend to coincide with the rangers’ shift changes.
‘The park has the visitor safety rangers, and they have the SEAM (Sea, Air and Mountain) team but currently the SEAM team is tasked to focus on abalone poaching and bark stripping. The visitor rangers are supposed to be protecting the visitors. There are so many trails on the G-track (the lower slope of Signal Hill, Bo Kaap, Tamboerskloof and Sea Point) that veer off into their location that they can’t be found or they know the area that well.’
Osman adds that the formation of a structured body to coordinate volunteer efforts and to ‘ensure there is communication between the different user groups in the park, be it hikers, trail runners, cyclists, mountain climbers or environmental groups.’
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