Zungu revealed that he had been working at the café since 2012, while Lufhugu said he had only been there for about nine months. However, even in his short time at Velo, Lufhugu knows of petty crime taking place on Melle Street.
“There are these boys who live around the streets,” and true to his word, one boy popped up across the street.
“[This day] I didn’t take any notice of them. So I went inside, went to work. Then about 30 minutes later, this woman came in fuming and asked everyone whether they had seen anything happening around her car,” he continued.
Unfortunately, no one had noticed anything. “The car was broken into, and her laptop and I think a camcorder were taken. So she had to consult with the security guards and they said that they hadn’t seen anything either. So it became a problem but I don’t know whether they sorted it out.”
A few months back, City Buzz was roaming the same streets and came across Henry Cock sitting at Eighty Six Public, which is next door to Velo Café. Cock said car guards and crime were a problem in this public space. “People get harassed here all the time and they get stuff stolen from them, and I mean, it happens everywhere, but we need to make sure car guards are, like, vetted properly.”
Lufhugu said since he had worked at Velo Café the car break-in was the only incident he knew about, and he did not have a bad word to say about the area. “I love the environment. The environment is superb. And getting to interact with different people on a daily basis, it gives me that motivation and that self-worth.”
