DURBAN - PRESSURE is mounting on the eThekwini Municipality to forcibly remove vagrants living under the M4 bridge near Albert Park after a woman was injured in a smash-and-grab incident on Friday afternoon.
Bluff resident Louise Noble was driving home from work with her 32-year-old daughter and her children, aged 5 and five months, when she was attacked by three men who smashed her car window and removed a gold chain from her neck.
Noble was injured in the arm and leg as she tried to push the men away from the car.
A Daily News team was two cars behind the family when they were attacked.
Noble said that while in traffic she saw three men approaching her car, then suddenly one man smashed the driver’s window with an object.
“While we were still trying to understand what was going on, one man grabbed my neck and strangled me while removing a chain on my neck. It was a terrible situation, with no one to help. We screamed for help and the thugs ran away and vanished under the bridge with my chain.
“eThekwini municipality must take responsibility and forcibly remove these thugs here on our roads we pay for through our taxes. These people must be removed from here and I do not think these are homeless people, but these are criminals and drug addicts who are here to rob vulnerable people like us women and children,” Noble said.
When contacted again on Sunday, Noble said she was still “shaking” and disturbed by the incident. She said she did not understand why the municipality had allowed criminals to freely use the bridge as their hideout.
Other motorists who spoke to the Daily News said they used the route daily and the area was not safe. They said they were forced to use the route to avoid heavy traffic on South Coast Road.
The family was attacked after IOL reported last week that rock-throwing incidents seemed to be taking place again after several reports by motorists that they had been robbed and their cars smashed.
According to IOL, a man from Silver Glen in Chatsworth was injured when a rock hit his bakkie on the M4.
Criminals throw rocks at vehicles in an attempt to force drivers to stop, and if drivers do stop, they emerge from the bridge to rob them.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the municipality would look into suggestions by motorists that police patrols be brought back.
Last year, and in 2019, several incidents were reported and police had to establish a special unit to investigate and deal with this type of crime.
Police also increased patrols on the freeway and at freeway bridges around the city.
Daily News