Joggers attacked on Tafelberg Road
RECREATIONAL joggers have been cautioned to be vigilant after peaceful sunrise exercise turned into a nightmare for two friends who were attacked by assailants wielding knives and a metal bar.
Every weekend as early as 5.30am, 35-year-old Eddie Moyo and his friend Clive run along Tafelberg Road near the lower cable station.
However their jog was cut short on Saturday after they were ambushed, badly beaten, stabbed and robbed of their cellphones.
Moyo was assaulted with the metal bar on his right eye and mouth. His two lower front teeth were knocked out, while his friend was left with deep stab wounds to his right upper body.
“I think they were hiding in the bushes or in the grass because the three guys just appeared from the sides. They quickly surrounded us and demanded our cellphones.
“They looked young, maybe in their early twenties so we tried to reason with them, but they made threats. When I gave them the phone they hit me across the face,” he said.
Bleeding, shocked and confused, Moyo ran down towards Deer Park where he fell, hurting his knees and leg. A passer-by in a car stopped and came to his aid.
“While I ran in panic like a mad man, Clive was pinned down and stabbed. I just lost it and couldn’t think straight. He was assisted by other hikers and taken to Somerset Hospital.
“On Tuesday he was out of the intensive care unit. I thank God we are both alive,” said Moyo.
He will be lodging a complaint at the Cape Town police station today.
His employer, Justin Hodge at Fluffi and Friends, said he was trying to get help for Moyo and the support has been overwhelming.
“This happened at a place where most of us run, so for me it was important to share his story on social media so that fellow hikers can be cautioned.
“This incident has created fear. Since our coffee shop is in De Waal Park and the park had to close due to Covid-19 levels, our shop only recently opened so I couldn’t offer much help.
“He cannot afford to go to the dentist for X-rays or attend counselling sessions, but people have been coming to the shop offering to assist. The positive outreach has just been incredible,” said Hodge.
Hodge said he has applied to BackaBuddy to get financial assistance for Clive.
The incident came just a week after a man was mugged at Signal Hill.
According to SANParks spokesperson Lauren Clayton there has been a general decrease in crime on the mountain throughout the lockdown period.
“There are adequate staff members on duty 24/7 patrolling the mountain range on a daily basis. We have ongoing joint operations with neighbourhood watch groups, the SAPS, City Law Enforcement, various hiking groups, and the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway surveillance system, to name but a few, to ensure visitor safety on the mountain,” she said.
TABLE grape producers in the Western Cape have continued harvesting their produce to be marketed at the South African Table Grape Industry's (Sati's) China market development campaign next month.
The campaign is a strategic partnership between the table grape industry and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture and aims to increase market access for table grape producers.
Sati spokesperson Clayton Swart said they looked forward to promoting South African table grapes.
“Sati plans a major marketing campaign in China in March 2021, targeting China's wholesale and retail markets.
“Sati's transformation unit has also worked hard to prepare table grape producers to participate in the China campaign.”
One such exporter is Warren Bam, who farms in Saron. He produces organic table grapes he exports to the UK, EU and North America. Now, he will be able to expand to China.
During a recent visit to another exporter, Robin Johnson, Agriculture MEC Ivan Meyer said the export market played a vital role in the Western Cape's economic recovery.
“The table grape industry, which employs 40 000 people, is an essential sub-sector of the Western Cape's agricultural economy. Growing the export market is inextricably linked to economic recovery in the Western Cape.
“The Western Cape Department of Agriculture has partnered with Sati to increase exports estimated at 15 750 tonnes in the 2020/21 season.
“Growing the export market by 5% over the next five years will create 19 000 jobs,” Meyer said.
WEEKS after US Democrats took control of Congress and the White House, a black lawmaker is making a renewed push for a national commission to examine the impact of slavery and reparations for descendants of millions of enslaved Africans.
Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Texas, announced the reintroduction of H.R. 40 to create the reparations commission last month, and next week the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is set to hear testimony on the bill.
H.R. 40 has a long history in the House, championed for decades by the late Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and now by Lee. The reparations commission would study the history of slavery, the role federal and state governments played in supporting slavery and racial discrimination against the descendants of enslaved Africans. “Economic issues are the root cause for many critical issues impacting the African American community today,” Lee said.
The commission would make recommendations regarding “any form of apology,” compensation and atonement for slavery, Lee said. Calls for reparations increased last year after
anti-racism protests swept the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck. It also became an issue during the Democratic presidential primary race, with the eventual winner, Joe Biden, supporting the creation of a commission.
Dreisen Heath, a Human Rights Watch official who is scheduled to testify during the reparations hearing next week, said that “promises to end systemic racism, and provide racial healing ring deeply hollow if the federal government is not taking steps to advance reparations for slavery, other forms of state-sponsored violence against black people, and racial discrimination.”
But the push for a commission is likely to face opposition in both the
House and Senate, as it has in the past.
The House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing in 2019. Then-Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he did not support reparations. “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago… is a good idea,” McConnell said.
During the hearing, Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of “The Case for Reparations,” rejected McConnell’s argument that “Well into the century, the US was still paying out pensions to the heirs of Civil War soldiers.”
This week, Rep. Steve Cohen, DTenn., chairman of the judiciary subcommittee, said: “Our nearly 250-year history of slavery has never been properly addressed and certainly has had an adverse effect upon African-Americans’ economic opportunities.”