A 33-year-old man from Langa has been arrested in connection with the recent fatal smash-and-grab attack on a retired teacher. He is expected to appear at the Bishop Lavis magistrate’s court on Thursday to face murder and aggravated robbery charges, said police spokesperson Brig Novela Potelwa. “As the investigation unfolds, we expect the arrests of more suspects.” Karin van Aardt, 64, and her husband had flown into Cape Town and were minutes away, travelling on Jakes Gerwel Drive, when they came under attack at a traffic light.
The passenger window was smashed and she was repeatedly stabbed while one suspect grabbed for her handbag. Her husband sped away but Van Aardt, a former Bloemfontein primary school teacher who had retired to Mbombela, died en route to hospital. “An earnest plea is made to local communities to provide information to police in efforts to prevent similar crime incidents and ensure perpetrators of crime are brought to book,” Potelwa said.
“With the holiday season on us, prompting increased activity on roads and other public places, integrated deployments have been intensified at identified hotspots in accordance with the safer festive season operational plan.” The couple were only seven minutes from Cape Town International Airport when she was killed at a N2 intersection that is a known hotspot, anti-crime activist Andre Snyman from eBlockwatch said in a Facebook post. “This is not an unknown corner. People on the ground know these spots.
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We know where you shouldn’t be stopping. The maps don’t say it. The brochures don’t say it.
You follow the GPS. You drive straight into an intersection that has been a problem for a long time.” Snyman said he had been alerted about another attack on November 12 at the “N2-N7 hell run” when a man’s wrist was slashed and three of the car’s windows were broken. More active law enforcement is needed to deal with the years-long failure to protect the main funnel of people leaving the airport, he said.
“If this is where visitors ‘pour out’, that route should be lined with visible support and smart policing. If the criminals move, the support must move with them.”
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