A Durban dad was bound and assaulted in the presence of his two children during an armed robbery at his home.
|||Durban - A 40-year-old Kloof father was bound and assaulted in the presence of his two little children during an armed robbery at his home in the early hours of Tuesday.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said four gunmen raided the Valley Road house at 4am.
“They took two vehicles as well as other belongings and fled the scene,” he said.
Zwane said no arrests had been made on Tuesday, but private investigator Brad Nathanson, who has taken on the case, was confident he had identified those responsible for the attack and said they were linked to other crimes in the area.
“Arrests are imminent,” he said.
This, the latest in a series of violent attacks on homeowners in the Upper Highway suburbs, comes less than a day after more than 600 Kloof residents gathered at Kloof Junior Primary School to address crime in their community.
Rodney Bradley was shot and killed during a home invasion last Friday, while Vossie van Rooyen was attacked with a hammer and Ryan Sutherland stabbed in separate armed robberies last month.
Video footage of Sutherland’s ordeal was aired nationally on television last week.
The Sunday Tribune reported at the weekend that Blue Security attended to more than 150 incidents in the area last month.
The DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard spoke to the “infuriated” residents who met on Monday night. “They are scared,” said Barnard. “The situation is dire.” Barnard said the satellite police station serving Kloof was under-resourced. “It has only two vehicles and a large community to police,” she said.
The reason for this was that police stations were resourced according to the 2001 census, said Barnard.
“Populations have trebled since then,” she said.
Barnard would appeal to provincial police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni to deploy additional resources and increase policing in the area.
Nikki Mohlmann of the Kloof Community Policing Forum (CPF) called on the community to support the forum’s “camera project” which was launched at the annual general meeting last month.
The project involved installing video cameras, which would be linked to the local police station, at entrances and exits from the suburb. “We want cameras on the freeways, the side roads, the railway line - which is a major problem - and at the gorge,” she said.
Two cameras were installed on Tuesday. Mohlmann called on residents to get involved in the CPF.
Speaking on behalf of police, Zwane echoed this call.
“The public must join the community policing forums that exist at their local police stations,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Seaview, a 67-year-old man was shot and killed, in what is believed to have been a botched robbery, at his Braid Avenue home on Monday night. “Bellair police are investigating a case of murder and no arrest has been made,” said Zwane.
The Mercury