Cape Town - A group of residents from Sea Point and surrounding areas staged a march at the weekend, calling for an end to the spate of attacks on the Promenade targeting women and the elderly.
March co-ordinator and FF Plus ward councillor Paul Jacobson said Atlantic Seaboard visitors and locals had been attacked, stabbed, mugged, and threatened.
The incidents were mostly perpetrated by street dwellers and had become a daily occurrence, he said.
Jacobson said recent incidents included, but were not limited to, the attack on a young woman from Joburg in April.
She fell over the railings on to the rocks near the Sea Point swimming pool and suffered internal and external injuries after a street dweller charged at her with a knife, he said.
Recently, a woman was attacked by a vagrant while walking along the Promenade at the Queen’s Beach circle, while a woman student from Saudi Arabia was also harassed and robbed while walking on the Promenade, he said.
This incident was followed by an attack on two American female tourists on Victoria Road, Bantry Bay, he added.
“Our visitors and residents are exposed regularly to what can often only be described as open drug scenes, with hard drugs being injected for all to see.
“Further to this, our women and children are exposed to nudity and all manner of indecent behaviour by these vagrants, who are often in the grip of drug-induced psychosis and untreated mental illness,” he said.
Jacobson said the march was to send a strong message to the City that more law enforcement officers were needed and that the targeting of people in public spaces and exposure to public indecency would not be tolerated. “We have an obligation to make sure that in public spaces all visitors are protected,” said Jacobson.
The march was preceded by the deployment of 16 law enforcement officers on Friday to the Atlantic Seaboard, which ward councillor Nicola Jowell said was not from the group that was deployed by the mayor to the CBD.
Jowell said additional members from that team would still be deployed to the area.
“This is a great boost to visibility and safety in our area.
“The Summer Safety plan will also have officers from units across the city reallocated to all coastal regions and the Atlantic Seaboard as part of this additional deployment,” she said.
Jowell said the strengthened team at Sea Point Law Enforcement will continue to work with all partners to ensure a safer season.