Residents find rusted panga and knife on M4 bridge
There have been eight armed muggings on the bridge since January, six of them involving cyclists.
TIRED of waiting for the municipality to act, three Durban North residents using a chainsaw and their bare hands, cut and hacked away at the bushes surrounding the Ellis Brown Viaduct’s tower over the uMngeni River on Saturday morning. The thick bushes have been used by vagrants and thieves to hide in and rob passing cyclists and runners. Since January, there have eight armed muggings on the walkway (going towards Riverside Road), six of them involving cyclists.
What’s more residents also found a rusted panga and a butter knife concealed under sand and roots near the tower. The panga had a piece of foam taped around the bottom as a makeshift handle. The walkway also passes over the Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve, where one of the armed muggings occurred.
On Friday this week there was an attempted mugging in the same spot. Two men confronted a lone cyclist on the pedestrian walkway but he managed to get away.
The residents and avid cyclists, Grant Westbrook, Adrian Legg and Mike Rossouw said they were fed up with waiting for the municipality and in particular, the Parks Department to clear away the thick bushes.
“What has taken the municipality months to do took us less than half an hour. We are constantly hearing about the muggings and Adrian has personally had a man attempt to rob him. He was crouching in the tower waiting behind one of the pillars. We couldn’t stand back and wait for another stabbing.
“Now that the area has been cleared, it offers cyclists and runners in both directions a clear view of what lays beyond the towers. The discovery of the rusted panga and knife concealed at the top of the stairway to this tower shows there are criminals waiting for the right opportunity,” Westbrook said.
