Stabbing on Camps Bay Beach two days after Clifton 3rd Beach attack

One person was stabbed and another assaulted with a brick on Camps Bay Beach - just two days after a UCT student was fatally stabbed at nearby Clifton 3rd Beach in Cape Town.

Police spokesperson Capt FC van Wyk said there had been an altercation between three youths aged 15 and 16 on Camps Bay Beach at around 6pm on Monday.

"A passer-by tried to intervene and was hit over the head with a brick. Camps Bay SAPS members in the vicinity arrested an  18-year-old male on a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm," said Van Wyk.

Ward councillor Nicola Jowell said in a post on Facebook that the incident followed the attempted theft of a cellphone.

"A young man was approached by a man who tried to steal his phone. The youth and his friends gave chase after the suspect and cornered him," she wrote.

"He then stabbed one in order to get away. The second injury occurred a short while later when law enforcement and SAPS were on the scene. A passing motorist stopped and confronted the group of youths ... one of the youths threw a brick at this man and he was injured by this attack. This person was arrested by SAPS.

"The initial robbery/stabbing suspect has not yet been arrested," she wrote.

The incident was the second stabbing in two days on popular city beaches.

Cebo Mhleli Mbatha, 19, a first-year humanities student at UCT, died after being stabbed during an apparent robbery at Clifton 3rd Beach on Saturday. His friend was stabbed and injured.

UCT vice-chancellor Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng wrote about the incident to colleagues and students with a "heart that is heavy with grief and outrage", on Monday.

"I share with everyone at UCT a sense of deep desolation that our students and South Africans in general, continue to be affected by violent crime and criminality in their daily lives.

"This is an attack on all of us at UCT, in Cape Town and in SA."

She said that four UCT students had been relaxing on Clifton 3rd Beach when they were approached by two men who apparently tried to rob them of their cellphones.

Mbatha was stabbed in the chest and died before he could be taken to hospital. His friend, also a male student, was stabbed in the leg and has since been treated in hospital.

"Two other students managed to escape without physical injury but were severely traumatised. All three surviving students experienced severe shock and trauma from this terrible ordeal," she wrote.