HAS Pinetown always been a crime hot spot? Contrary to what is known of the town today, long-term residents of the Highway area remember Pinetown as a safe place to live and shop in. ALSO READ: Annie ready to be homed after life-changing makeover Errol Hicks, a local resident, recently shared with the Highway Mail a well-preserved cutting of the paper’s December 22, 1972 edition, where the then Pinetown Traffic Chief, Ken Taytasac, was named the ‘Star of The Week’ after he received the Japan World Safety award.
“Although we lived in Westville at the time, we did most of our weekly shopping for home provisions in Pinetown at Sanlam Shopping Centre (Pine Crest Shopping Centre) – then a newly opened facility with excellent undercover parking and pleasant tea room facilities,” said Hicks.
According to Hicks, the security of Pinetown in those days was so good that both he and his wife allowed their teenage daughter, who was a learner at Westville Girls’ High School at the time, to work a few evenings a week as a waitress at The Golden Egg restaurant to earn pocket money for herself.
“We often went to the Pinetown drive-in cinema at night, and the roads were perfectly safe to travel late at night. I cannot ever remember the existence of potholes. After living 29 years in Westville we moved to a gated estate in Hillcrest in 2008, when the level of Westville home attacks and robberies became a matter of concern to me,” said Hicks.
Hicks described the state of Pinetown today as ‘unbelievable’ and not one that the former traffic chief would be proud of. Pinetown SAPS spokesperson, Bongumusa Manqele acknowledged that the safety in Pinetown is not where it should be and that the crime rate is alarming.
“As the local police, we have increased our visibility and, leading to the festive season, we will be having crime awareness campaigns to alert the community of crimes and hotspots they should be aware of,” he said.
According to Manqele, the three problematic crimes rife in Pinetown are carjacking, house robberies and business robberies.
“We are appealing to the community to be vigilant, particularly motorists. We urge them to close their windows when they approach intersections and congested areas,” he added. According to Pinetown and New Germany CPF chairman, Tony da Canha, safety in Pinetown is a disaster.
“People are being robbed at knife point and there is a new trend- robbers kick people in their ankles as they walk on the streets. This forces them to stop and gives the robbers an opportunity to attack and rob them,” he said. Da Canha said the CPF is ensuring that warning signs are put up at hot spots.
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