Motorists, commuters and pedestrians on the N1 bridge connecting Joostenbergvlakte and Bloekombos have been terrorised by what local residents call ‘robot robbers’, Cape {town} Etc reports.
This has resulted in local businesses looking to spend up to R180 000 from their own pockets for private security on the bridge due to the ‘absence of law enforcement’.
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Armed robberies at intersections on both sides of the bridge have become a ‘near daily occurrence’, many of which go unreported, according to the Joostenbergvlakte Neighbourhood Watch (JBV Patrol).
In the latest series of attacks, a visitor to Joostenbergvlakte was held up at gunpoint and robbed at the traffic lights on Lucullus Street a few weeks ago, according to TygerBurger via News24.
Previously, in July two workers walking to work were robbed of their cellphones at the intersection next to SA Metal leading into Bloekombos.
On the very same day, a motorist was robbed while a gun was held against his head as he waited to turn right onto the N1.
A month prior, a local farmer was also robbed on the other side of the bridge at the same intersection next to SA Metal.
In another incident in June, a female worker was stabbed and robbed while ‘on her way to work’ at the intersection on the Bloekombos side of the bridge.
Finally, in April, a man cycling to work was hit over the head with a plank and his face beaten up badly, with his phone and bicycle being stolen.’
‘My workers told me how extremely dangerous both intersections are. The robberies we know about do not reflect the true events as they are never reported. It is much worse. These people are dead scared,’ one employer reported.
On 8 June, a vehicle broke down near the N1 Lucullus off-ramp when multiple robbers approached the vehicle and robbed the passengers, excluding one woman who escaped and fled to safety.
Some of the aforementioned attacks were reported to police, whereas others were reported to JBV Patrol, which ‘keeps record of the incidents’.
Dave Gale, spokesperson for JBV Patrol, stated that the number of robberies have ‘grown significantly’ in the last year as criminals have infiltrated the ranks of the waste pickers.
‘Up until about a year ago, if you had taken the Joostenbergvlakte off-ramp to the N1 and crossed the bridge towards Bloekombos you may have seen one or two ‘waste pickers’ standing next to the road asking permission from motorists to take items of value, that were destined for the dump, off their bakkies,’ said Gale.
‘But a criminal element has now infiltrated their ranks. We call them the “robot robbers,”‘ Gale added.
According to Gale, it is now the norm to have up to ten or more individuals ‘loitering on the side of the road’, peering into vehicles for items of value and snatching anything that they ‘can lay their hands on’.
‘We have daily thefts off the back of bakkies and trailers. They do not discriminate between metal scrap, tool boxes, materials, equipment, or anything of value,’ said Gale.
Gale said that the local community police subforum and JBV Patrol have been engaging with the City of Cape Town and Kraaifontein police for at least a year now to ‘increase their presence in that area’, which they believe has been caused by the presence of the municipal waste transfer station.
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Picture: Sydney Seshibedi / Gallo Images