Cape Town - Macassar ward councillor Peter Helfrich is frustrated about an alleged promise made by police management to patrol the notorious Macassar Road, after more bodies were found along the road, dubbed the “road of doom”.
The latest attack involved City workers.
The lack of police visibility in Macassar appear to be a major contributing factor to the activities taking place, specifically on Macassar Road.
Helfrich said police promised to increase visibility on the road after three bodies were dumped there between May 28 and June 3.
“SAPS management in the province promised more visibility in the area, and particularly this road, after three bodies were recently found. I am ticked off and outraged because this has not happened.
“Once again criminals who do not reside in our ward come into our ward to do their criminal activities. These criminals know that our local Macassar police station is under-resourced and undermanned and they take advantage of this.”
Helfrich said they had a lot of respect for their local officers so much that they find it unfair that as under-resourced as they are, they are also expected to cover the whole of Macassar.
“We have a lot of respect for our local police officers. It is unacceptable for SAPS management to expect our local police officers to manage a large ward like Ward 109 with almost no resources. It’s not fair to these officers and it is definitely not fair to the residents they are obligated to protect.”
Community leader, Felicity Solomons, said since all the incidents recorded on this notorious road, residents had come up with a new name calling the Macassar road the “road of doom”.
“Residents are calling this road the ‘road of doom’ because of all of the crime taking place on this road. Our councillor, Peter Helfrich, has been calling for SAPS to increase its visibility on this road. It clearly has not happened, even after they promised to do so”.
CPF spokesperson Russell Williams said since the incident that happened over the weekend where City employees were robbed at gunpoint by 10 men, the area had seen patrollers on the ground.
“It is unfortunate that it took the incident that happened over the weekend to see patrollers in the area. Something horrible could have happened that day and we honestly cannot expect the one patrolling van to cover the whole of Macassar.
The City’s employee who would like to remain anonymous said they were left traumatised about what happened and two employees had since resigned.
siviwe.melapi@inl.co.za