Marked drop in muggings at Table Mountain National Park

There has been a notable decrease in muggings and attacks at the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP), but 60 reported incidents last year is unacceptable, says the NGO Friends of Table Mountain National Park.

Chairperson Andy Davies said the decrease was an improvement compared to the high of 96 incidents in 2023.

“We believe this can be attributed to the arrest of a repeat mugger on Lion’s Head and the demise of one of two repeat muggers above Camps Bay in 2023,” said Davies.  

He said a significant increase in resources had been deployed, including metro police, law enforcement and traffic officers by the City of Cape Town (CoCT). There was also improved collaboration between law enforcement agencies and the public.

Davies said extra boots on the ground would have a positive impact on crime prevention and called on forestry, fisheries and the environment minister Dion George and SANParks to assign a more substantial budget from TMNP's income to ensure problems plaguing the park were resolved.

“For the 2024 tax year, SANParks made an income of R430m but only spent R107m on TMNP. SANParks is responsible for the safety of visitors to TMNP and should follow the good example of the CoCT by deploying sufficient resources throughout the week and during all daylight hours,” he said.

The NGO called for a transparent needs analysis to be performed for adequate preventive safety at TMNP and, based on that, appropriate numbers of trained and skilled resources to be deployed.

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