Don’t be a victim at infamous park

This follows a reported case on Friday in which a man was struck with an axe, only to later turn the weapon on his assailant.

The 40-year-old Brakpan resident, who did not want to be named, told the City Times he “looked death in the eye” when a man wielding an axe attacked him at around noon.

He was in the vicinity to fish.

The man made his way to the water’s edge and called a fellow fisherman, who was fishing from a canoe, closer.

Before long, the man on the canoe warned him of a person standing behind him.

“He screamed to me: ‘watch out’, and fortunately I could turn and defend myself,” he said, saying the incident did not rattle him.

“He swung the axe at me and chopped me twice – on the hand and arm.

“… I managed to get the axe from him and hit him with his own axe.”

The assailant ran away and the victim is not sure how badly he was injured, saying it happened very fast.

“If that guy [the fisherman on the canoe] did not warn me, he would have axed me from behind.”

The victim made his way to Snake Road and flagged down the driver of a vehicle to assist him.

He was later given four stitches in hospital.

The man opened a case of attempted robbery at the Benoni Police Station, but no arrests had been made by Monday afternoon.

Benoni SAPS acting station commander Col Martin van Nieuwenhuizen is once again warning the public to stay away from the Danie Taljaard Park, which has seen numerous robberies in the last few years.

He said about 10 reported cases of robbery, where people have been assaulted have been committed in the area around Danie Taljaard Park and the Snake Road on and off-ramps in the past six months.

Van Nieuwenhuizen warned that people are easy prey in the overgrown park.

“They [criminals] sit in the long grass and watch you,” he said.

“They are illegal miners and have a lot of time to monitor you.

“If you are here alone or with your family you are looking for trouble; they sit here and watch you.”

The infamous park stretches from near Snake Road, all the way to the Voortrekker Street bridge, along the N12 highway and the water’s edge of the Kleinfontein Dam.

Police have asked the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) to rid the area of overgrowth, which they believe will reduce crime.

In the paper dated January 29, the City Times reported that no crime had been reported since various organisations, including the EMM, cut down vegetation at a park along Bunyan Street.

Murder, smash-and-grabs and drug abuse were previously prevalent at the intersection of Bunyan Street and the on-ramp to the N12 highway.

EMM spokesperson Themba Gadebe said the municipality would give attention to Danie Taljaard Park.