Table Mountain National Park reports decrease in crime incidents over festive season
Between November last year to date, the park said it recorded 60 incidents compared to 64 the previous festive season.
SANParks signage in the Table Mountain National Park. Picture: Ntuthuzelo Nene/EWN
CAPE TOWN - The Table Mountain National Parks says it's seen a decrease in crime incidents reported over this festive season compared to the previous season.
Between November last year to date, the park said it recorded 60 incidents compared to 64 the previous festive season.
The crimes included robberies, attempted robberies, and thefts.
Table Mountain National Parks manager, Megan Taplin, said they’d also seen a 40% decrease in robberies compared to last season.
She said 12 environmental crimes were also reported separately.
"We had the West Coast rock lobster season open during the festive season. We have people checking everybody's catches and we confiscate any undersized or if you've gone above your bag limit, or you don't have a permit. Also, there's abalone poaching, which is more of a targeted intervention, where we're targeting vessel-based poaching as well as land-based poaching."
Taplin has attributed the decrease to heightened visibility and combined efforts of all law enforcement agencies.
"We have been increasing the number of rangers on the ground. We've been increasing our collaboration with the City of Cape Town as well as SAPS, through things like the Table Mountain Safety Forum, where we share information and discuss joint deployments."