Cape Town - In hopes of ensuring the safety of passage on the Sable Road Bridge, Century City Property Owners Association (CCPOA) has partnered with community leaders to secure permanent security personnel on the bridge.
This comes after the bridge had been listed as a hotspot for gangsterism due to children using the passage as a lucrative area to make money by begging, resulting in the bridge becoming a territorial area, leaving workers and on-foot commuters vulnerable to harm.
Sub Council Chairperson Angus McKenzie said that for the last two years, there had been an increase in the number of children begging on the bridge as they are able to make an excess of R 1000 alone from begging.
“As Sub Council Chairperson for the area, I applaud the work done by the Councillor as well as the partnering spirit of the CCPOA. It is indeed difficult to do it alone. However, together we can achieve so much more.
“The area has become a bit of a hotspot for gangsterism because as these children get affiliated with different types of gangs, this gives birth to a sort of territory gang war between rival gangs, and this happens in full view of commuters and other people passing by, and so it places a huge risk of those individuals, on the children themselves and also another risk for motorists because one can very quickly accidentally knock these children running and jaywalking across the road, running away from each other on the N1,” said McKenzie.
CCPOA safety and security manager Marinus Boshoff said that with 1.5 million vehicles entering Century City, which predominantly uses Sable Bridge as their primary route into the precinct, it was only a natural process that CCPOA, with Kensington Ward Councillor Helen Jacobs, Law Enforcement, Social Development, and various other stakeholders, formed a partnership to address these concerns.
“Over the last few months, the Sable Road bridge has become a problem with begging children and the crimes, assault and abuse associated with these actions. On average, 1.5 million vehicles enter Century City, which predominantly uses Sable Bridge as their primary route into the precinct. Unfortunately, these associated crimes affected not only the motorist but also the significant foot traffic from the Century City train station and Kensington residents working and shopping in Century City. It was only a natural process that CCPOA, with Kensington Ward Councillor Helen Jacobs, Law Enforcement, Social Development and various other stakeholders, formed a partnership to address these concerns.
“Successful programmes to get kids off the street and reintegrated into family environments, schools, and social programs have proven to work. Unfortunately, due to the lucrative opportunity begging has created on the bridge, it continues to attract wayward children. The CoCT social development interventions must be commended for their work so far. To support their efforts, a joint public safety component was added.
“Now, with a joint stakeholder deployment on Sable Bridge, commuters, workers, and shoppers can look forward to a safer passage of travel on Sable Road Bridge. Those forced into begging can be assured that through this partnership, we will work to uplift the circumstances they face,” said Boshoff.