A retired primary schoolteacher’s murder in a botched smash-and-grab robbery in Cape Town has drawn outrage from people demanding that more be done to protect travellers on theroads around the airport. Karin van Aardt, 64, was fatally stabbed on Friday evening shortly after arriving in the city with her husband from their home in Mbombela. They had intended to celebrate their grandchild’s birthday in Vredenburg and had rented a car for the drive after their flight landed.
They were accosted at a traffic light. Her window was smashed as assailants tried to grab her handbag, stabbing her in the process. Her husband sped away, but she had succumbed to her wounds before he could reach the nearest hospital.
There has been rising concern about smash-and-grab attacks and stone-throwings on various routes near the airport for several years. In August IFP MPLiezl van der Merwecalled for visible policing in the area, particularly at traffic lights and intersections where criminals were known to prey on motorists for their cellphones. Three weeks ago the FF Plus also called for action to stop violent attacks and stone-throwing on the N2 and R300.
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The party called on officials from the municipality, the province, the South African National Roads Agency and the police to work together to find solutions to the criminality around the airport. Preventive action recommended by the FF+ include: Party leader Corne Mulder said: “Three weeks later, nothing has happened. No acknowledgement that a problem exists.
No indication that notice was taken of the party’s call for action. No plan or effort was made. Just silence.
“The problem is far bigger and stretches much wider, though. The murder and crime wave at the airport is indicative of what is happening around the country. Action and prevention are not optional — they are absolutely crucial.” With an average of about 70 murders committed in South Africa every day — a fraction of the assaults, attempted murders, rapes and other violent crimes — Mulder said, “South Africans have become so desensitised that this slaughter is almost regarded as normal. It is not normal; it is wrong — and the time has come to take serious and fierce action.” Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced in October that a team of40 metro police officershad been deployed to patrol the N2 on a 24/7 basis to increase safety efforts along the highway and neighbouring airport and Borcherds Quarry precincts.
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