Numbi gate a hot spot for crime, claim residents

HAZYVIEW - Following the fatal shooting of a German tourist on the Numbi road on Monday evening, October 3, community members alleged that three other robberies had occurred just hours before the attack.

Four tourists were on their way to a lodge near the Numbi Gate in a Hyundai Staria when they were stopped by three armed suspects in a VW Caddy.

“The suspects are said to have instructed the tourists to open the doors of their vehicle, but when the driver locked all of them, one of the suspects apparently shot him in the upper body through the window. The driver reversed for about 100m before crashing into a wall,” said a provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala.

The tourist has since been identified as Joerg Schnarr.

Several residents, on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation by the suspects, came forwards when Lowvelder visited the scene on Tuesday, claiming that similar incidents had occurred since Sunday (October 2).

In the first incident, three occupants of a VW Caddy tried to rob the driver of Toyota Fortuner with a Western Cape registration number. The driver managed to outsmart the would-be criminals and sped away unharmed. It was reported that three shots were fired at the Fortuner.

Residents reported that the occupants of two vehicles, a VW Polo and Range Rover, were robbed at the same spot in two separate cases, again by occupants of a VW Caddy, earlier on Monday morning, before the incident with the Germans.

“The criminals took their items and let them go. They returned on Monday evening to the same spot, and the murder [of the

German] was committed. We heard some noise before we heard a gunshot,” claimed one of the community members.

“They first made sure that the security patrol was busy in another area of the road before they attacked. They are targeting cars that have registration plates from other provinces.”

The residents also claimed that criminals are using the speed bumps on the road, which the community had made themselves a while ago, to their advantage.

They said that as a vehicle slows down to approach the speed bump, it is attacked.

The Masoyi police’s spokesperson,

Captain Nanikie Nonyane, said none of these incidents had been officially reported to them.

“The community is asked to immediately report crime or any suspicious behaviour they see to the police, and we urge tourists to open cases if they face instances of crime,” she said.

She added that the station has an active K9 unit designated to the area, doing regular patrols.

The community is asked to immediately report crime or any suspicious behaviour they see to the police

Prior to the killing of Schnarr, the Numbi road has had the following incidents in the past year:

• September 12, 2021: A British woman and 10 foreigners are hijacked after exiting Numbi Gate.

• December 18, 2021: There is an attempted robbery on three tour guides.

• December 23, 2021: Three local tourists are robbed by unknown suspects while parked outside Numbi Gate.

• January 3, 2022: A mother and her two children are attacked by two unknown armed men near a taxi rank.

• March 31, 2022: Two German tourists are robbed by two unknown men.

• April 18, 2022: A Gauteng family of five are robbed by four unknown suspects.

COO of the KLCBT, Linda Grimbeek, previously told Lowvelder that closing the Numbi Gate will not solve the issue of crime, because some of the community members benefit from the tourists entering the KNP through that gate.

“The area has over 80% unemployed youth, which is a big concern. We need to address the issue of how to come up with job opportunities, because that will also assist in decreasing crime, since implementing all these safety measures while ignoring the main source of the problem is useless,” said Grimbeek.

Meanwhile, White River Hi-Tech started patrolling the Numbi road to the Kruger National Park on July 1 in an effort to assist the police in safeguarding tourists using the road.

The private security is being funded by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa and was appointed after a public outcry demanding that the Numbi Gate be closed after a spate of tourist attacks.