Cape Town - Nyanga police have increased deployments in areas identified as crime hot spots in Brown’s Farm township following a spike in robberies of e-hailing drivers and Facebook Marketplace users.
In some cases, users who were not familiar with the area were under the impression that they were doing business at a farm and not a township, said Nyanga police station commander, Lindiwe Dyantyi.
A Glencairn resident was stabbed to death by scammers who lured the 51-year-old to Brown’s Farm in September. Three suspects were arrested in the same month for another robbery in the area.
On October 12, six teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 were arrested for a similar attempted robbery in Brown’s Farm.
Cellphones confiscated from the teenagers as part of the investigation revealed they had been chatting to several potential victims. A week thereafter, Nyanga police arrested a 17-year-old girl after a man was robbed when he delivered Marketplace-advertised goods.
Dyantyi said: “While the precinct experienced a slight decrease in reported cases after September and October, reports have gone up again.
“It is on this basis that we caution both e-hailing drivers and online sellers to reconsider venturing out to Brown’s Farm.”
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said that Nyanga police, together with the local Community Policing Forum (CPF) and neighbourhood watch, continued to patrol the identified hotspots with deployments having been increased.
E-hailing driver, Onke Mayile, said: “The warning to not do business in certain areas is the bare minimum; these places need proper policing.
“I have been robbed at gunpoint a number of times in the area, and it's not even about not knowing the area but the lack of safety there.
Most of us are in this business to feed our families, so now not being able to go somewhere because you are scared that you will be robbed is just not fair.
“The place has been identified as a place where these types of robberies happen, why not have police patrolling the area more frequently?
“They lure us there because they know that there are no police in sight,” he said.
CPF secretary, Dumisani Qwebe said: “The police can't be everywhere at once. We appeal to them (e-hailing and Marketplace users) to start at the police station to ask the police to escort them when they are being called in Brown’s Farm. This is for their safety.
“They get hurt and carjacking is a big problem, with 17-year-old’s being the perpetrators. We understand that they are family people who want to feed their families, but their safety is more important.”
Anyone with information about these crimes can anonymously contact the Crime Stop on 0860 010 111 or use the MySaps mobile app.
Cape Times