Vagrants menace, use drains as escape route
A STROLL in the park turned into a traumatic experience for Joburg residents who were accosted by a vagrant before he escaped in a water culvert
It is believed that similar incidents have occurred at Zoo Lake, where vagrants have been robbing or attempting to rob people.
The vagrants use the pipes to escape detection and surface somewhere in Hillbrow or Parktown.
One of the victims, Vyvan SayerBoyd, was taking a stroll with her friend in Zoo Lake near Lower Park Drive when they were accosted.
“I heard someone say ‘Hey! Hey, give me something. Give me something’,” she recalled.
The two decided to continue walking and ignored the man, but he persisted.
Sayer-Boyd said she kept her hands in her tracksuit jacket pockets.
The vagrant, she said, must have assumed she had a cellphone in one of her pockets and shoved his hands into them.
“He kicked me under my feet and threw me on the ground.
“It happened so fast,” she said. Her friend called for help, and several young men ran to assist them.
But the assailant had fled via the water culvert and disappeared underground.
The police were contacted but she said they never took a statement from her.
“They just said ‘This person is gone in this drain and we will never find him, part of this drain comes out somewhere in Hillbrow and Parktown’.
“I was traumatised, because if this is the attitude of the police, then I don’t know…” she added.
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo marketing manager, Jenny Moodley, said they found that those incidents were “very much hearsay kind, and people think they won’t get any support, so they haven’t been reporting them to the police”.
“We know from the way the police services work.
“The more these incidents are reported, the more resources are assigned to patrol and police the park.”
Joburg Park’s Alton Rankin met with Sayer-Boyd after they laid a complaint with the department. “We found a water culvert that runs from Hillbrow under Wits University and the Zoo and under Zoo Lake, along the periphery.
“And those tunnels all join the tunnel that is at Zoo Lake,” he said. “What we’ve noticed is that over time, the fencing has deteriorated and is now dilapidated.”
The Star team visited Zoo Lake with Rankin to see the condition of the water culvert and the fence.
There were metre-long gaps where the fence had been pulled apart for people to climb through.
“The fence had rusted and looked as though it had not been maintained in a long time.
There was also a makeshift structure where a vagrant appears to be living.
An old duvet and dirty clothing had been left at the site.
Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) operations manager: marketing and communications Bertha Peters-Scheepers said JRA was responsible for cleaning the stormwater drains in all the regions of the City of Joburg.
Their sole purpose was to ensure adequate drainage and prevent urban flooding, risk to life, limb and property, she explained.
“Culverts cannot be closed, because stormwater needs to flow freely through the drainage systems. If they were to become blocked, this would cause flooding in the city,” she said.
“Where criminal activity is involved, it is the responsibility of the SAPS and Joburg metro police to address by-law infringements.
“If members of the public are aware of criminal hotspots, they are urged to report the matter to the police,” said Peters-Scheepers.
Parkview police spokesperson, Captain Tintswalo Sibeko said they had no record of any cases opened relating to robberies in the park.
“However, anyone who has been robbed must come forward and open a case at the police station,” she urged.
Said Sayer-Boyd: “I’m so traumatised, I don’t even know if I will be able to walk at Zoo Lake again. I used to love walking there.”
He kicked me and threw me on the ground. He thought I had a cellphone