Phoenix residents want thoroughfare closed

Phoenix residents say the thoroughfare in Pisces Way is becoming a crime hot spot.

Residents of Pisces Way in Phoenix say a nearby thoroughfare has become a crime hot spot and they want it closed.

One resident says she has becomeaccustomedtothe screams of people being robbed on the path linking Pisces Way and Democracy Road in neighbouring Joe Slovo.

The resident, who did not want to be named for fear of being attacked, said the path hadn’t always been open.

“There used to be a fence but slowly it started being removed bit by bit until it was completely open,” she said.

People had jumped the fence, to get to the police station or to buy electricity at the shops in Phoenix before there had been shops in Joe Slovo, she said.

“I’ve been living here for 21 years, and this spot has been open for about 15 years now. But in the last five years, it has become really bad.”

She said people used the thoroughfare to get to the taxis that stopped on the corner of Freedom Way and Democracy Way.

“We never had a problem with this, but now people in the street are being targeted. Criminals steal women’s bags and run over to Joe Slovo where they can easily get lost between the shacks.

“One day I heard a woman screaming. They hit her with a hammer outside my house.”

She said the path was also attracting illegal dumping, and vehicles sped through it.

“We fear for the children because the cars drive through at a speed. Even police vans come racing through when they are chasing someone.”

But Captain Nopaya Madyibi, from the Milnerton police station, said their records showed no reports of robberies or other crime involving the Pisces Way thoroughfare.

“The few streets surrounding the thoroughfare had no robberies reported from September 2017 until March 2 2018,” she said.

Phoenix community leader Sibongile Kofi said he had not known about the problem until a resident had asked him to take it up with the City of Cape Town.

“APiscesWayresident approached me about the problem. I decided to investigate and went from door to door asking everyone in the road if they shared the same concern and they did,” said Mr Kofi.

He said Ward 4 councillor Wandildile Ngeyi had told him it would not be possible to close the thoroughfare.

But Mr Ngeyi told Tabletalk something could be done about the thoroughfare if the entire community supported the idea.