Metro, police criticised after student muggings

BUFFALO City Metro’s community service department and Mdantsane police have come under fire as a result of students from the Buffalo City FET College falling prey to criminals hiding in uncut and neglected bushes.

The students, who live in East London residences and go to John Knox Bokwe campus in NU1 Mdantsane, have become targets of muggings on their way to and from the Mtsotso train station.

Due to failure to clean up the area, the students are forced to walk through thick bushes and cross over a stream, which floods on rainy days.

Disgruntled students their reports to police proved fruitless.

Ntombokhanyo Witvoet said: “We reported the cases to the police and there was an agreement that the police would patrol in the area just to said had keep us safe. That only happened for a week last year and it never happened again.”

However, police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi said officers still patrolled along the route.

Mbi also said police had arrested five suspects and recovered stolen goods.

Lusanda Mayekiso said she and a group of other students were attacked in February.

“We were attacked by four men,” she said.

“They robbed us at knifepoint, taking my bag and a cellphone from one of the students I was with.”

Another student mugging last Wednesday prompted the student representative council to report the matter to the college management.

Students said the lack of maintenance in the area had forced them to clean up the dirt themselves in the past two years.

Asked about the poor maintenance in the area, ward councillor Landile Vika said about 10 people had been hired to clean up in the area.

“The reason behind the long grass in the area is because the water was stagnant,” Vika said.

“The municipality is busy installing stormwater drainage now to deal with that problem.

“I will have to take up the criminal elements with the police so that they can increase their visibility in the area.” —