'Serial masturbator' flashes Durban

The drive home from shopping was awkward for Caroline Reddy and her 12-year-old son.

Seconds after laughing together at a radio presenter's joke, the mother and son avoided eye contact and pretended not to have seen the man masturbating on Riverside Road, Durban North.

Motorists say the man, usually in dark pants and a blue jacket, has been sighted on several occasions, sometimes daily, indecently exposing himself to traffic.

"He knew exactly what he was doing. He looked straight at me as he continued to do it. It is wrong and he must be arrested," Reddy said.

Another motorist described the man as a "serial masturbator".

"I have read about these things in American newspapers…that there are sick people out there but you don't expect to see it on your daily route home," Marvin Ngidi said.

He said the man started his "unsavoury" activities months ago.

"In the beginning, he didn't face traffic. But now he has become brave and looks directly at us. There are times when I see him every day for a week in the same spot. And then I don’t see him for days," he said.

Durban clinical psychologist Dr Cathrin Venter said there could be various reasons why the man has been exposing himself to traffic.

"It's almost  never just one reason why a person would do something like this. It could be a fetish. It could also be that the person has low self-esteem and the only way he can get satisfaction is this way".

"It can also be that for some reason he was sexualised as a child and by exposing himself, that somehow, he has developed that as his erotic template therefore it just continued to be but he has become more blatant about it as he grows older," she explained.

Venter said the man should be counselled when he is arrested.

"We have to determine why he is doing this. If you don’t know, you won't know if there is something sinister to it. Also you need to profile the person to see that this is not the only thing that he is going to do. Is he a possible rapist? Because not all people who expose themselves are, but you can't exclude the possibility," she said.

During the past seven years, prostitutes have migrated rapidly from the city centre to the leafy northern suburbs, Durban North, Riverside and Virginia, where sex workers say they make more money.

In 2011, the Umgeni River Estuary Conservancy had to changed the route of its nature walk because tourists encountered prostitutes plying their trade on Riverside Road.

Durban North ward councillor Dean Macpherson said police needed to enforce the law in the area.

He also proposed a name and shame campaign.

"There appears to be a demand that is meeting the supply that is offered in the area. I believe that we need to publish the registration numbers of cars belonging to those who crawl the curbs in the area and I can guarantee you that prostitution will go down in the area," he said.