About 300 angry anglers fed up with a recent spate of murders and robberies of fellow anglers along the False Bay coast have called on Mayor Patricia de Lille to intervene.
Fishermen from various social and registered clubs say they’ve had enough and are ready to take back their fishing grounds from criminals “by any means necessary”.
During a meeting at the Strandfontein Pavilion on Friday night, the anglers from across Cape Town formed a working committee who will petition the City of Cape Town to step up safety measures along the coast.
They say the coastline stretching from Muizenberg and Strandfontein to Monwabisi and Macassar has become “a haven for criminals” preying on innocent anglers who fish at night.
In June, Pieter Terreblanche’s friend Alvin Allies of Northpine was shot and killed while fishing at Strandfontein.
The Brackenfell man says Alvin was shot dead in front of him. Their two attackers escaped and are still at large.
Pieter called on government to provide cops with adequate resources to do their jobs.
“One of the problems the police had on that tragic night was that they did not have vans to drive on the dunes to get to us,” he explains, adding that two policemen had to trek over the dunes on foot.
A week before this, police Sergeant Jacques Joubert, stationed at Harare Police Station, was stabbed and robbed by two men at Monwabisi Beach.
And in the latest incident last Tuesday, 15 armed thugs robbed over 60 fishermen at the Old Gunnery near the pavilion.
Angler Andre Lawrence says the attack was “well orchestrated”.
“They came like scavengers over the dunes and in a matter of seconds started robbing people of their cellphones and wallets and taking things out of their vans,” he says.
He says the skelms disappeared over the dark dunes.
De Lille's office did not respond to Daily Voice queries by last night.