Cape Town - Nyanga police have pleaded with online traders and e-hailing drivers to avoid Brown’s Farm informal settlement.
Station commander Lindiwe Dyantyi has red-flagged this area as a crime hot spot targeting e-hailing drivers and online marketplace sellers.
According to a report there’s an upsurge in robberies on e-hailing drivers and marketplace sellers in Brown’s Farm.
Nyanga police station have recorded numerous robbery cases where the victims fall prey to merciless scammers who lure unsuspecting victims to this area with the intention of robbing and at times attacking them.
Towards the end of last year, in September, a 51-year-old Glencairn man suffered the same fate in the Brown’s Farm area. He died after being stabbed during the ordeal.
Three suspects were arrested in the same month for another robbery in the area.
Six teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 were arrested by the Nyanga crime prevention unit on October 12 last year for a similar robbery attempt.
Cellphones confiscated from these teenagers as part of the investigation into the attempted robbery revealed the suspects had been chatting to several potential victims.
A week thereafter, another teenager, a 17-year-old girl, was arrested after a man was robbed as he delivered marketplace-advertised goods.
Dyantyi said: “The majority of the robbery victims we interviewed revealed they do not know the area at all. Some of the victims were even under the impression the area they were called out to was not a township but a farm.
“While the precinct experienced a slight decrease in reported cases after the September/October arrests, the incidents have gone up again. It is on this basis that we caution both e-hailing drivers and online sellers to reconsider venturing out to Brown’s Farm,” said Dyantyi.
To help tame the situation, Nyanga police, together with the local Community Police Forum and neighbourhood watch members, continue to patrol the identified hot spots and deployments have increased.
On a community engagement front the Nyanga police continually sensitise community members about reporting crime taking place in their precincts.
Anyone with information on the perpetrators of these robberies is urged to contact the police on 08600 10111.