Groenkloof reserve attack victims share ordeal to heal

04/05/2016. Some of the hikers at Groenkloof Game Reserve talk about how they were attacked and robbed at the game reserve. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

04/05/2016. Some of the hikers at Groenkloof Game Reserve talk about how they were attacked and robbed at the game reserve. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

Published May 5, 2016

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Pretoria - A group of people who had been attacked at the Groenkloof Nature Reserve returned to the scene of the crime on Wednesday intent on getting closure.

The group of eight, five of whom were attacked this year, rallied together to support each other through their traumatic experiences.

The group walked along the same routes they had walked just before they were attacked, in what could be described as a therapeutic session.

On Monday, the Pretoria News reported on Taschia Slabbert and her mother Melissa who were attacked and mugged as they hiked in the nature reserve.The men felt inside their underwear and stole their shoes and valuables, including Taschia’s camera, worth R33 000.

On April 10, Saloshani Pather and Saloshinie Govender were also hiking in the reserve when they were attacked, also by two men.

Pather said the men attacked from the front, pushing her to the ground and holding a knife to her throat threatening to rape her.

Govender said one of the men also put his hands in her underwear, feeling for anything of value that he could rob.

As with the Slabberts, they stole Pather’s shoes and also made off with two iPhones.

The four women believe that they were attacked and robbed by the same men.

They fitted the description the women shared, and their modus operandi was similar.

Joining them was Bernard Roode, who was robbed of a bicycle while he was cycling with a friend on February 20. “We were here at about 6.15 in the morning and we actually found them sleeping,” Roode said.

He said he confronted the two and asked them what they were doing there because they did not work there and that was when one of the men attacked Roode.

“The man took out a knife and tried to stab me but the bike was between us. We were struggling for the bicycle but he was able to take it,” Roode said. The cycling community had decided to boycott the nature reserve until it was safe to return, he said.

The whole group was angered by the incidents and said it would have helped if they were informed that it was risky to hike there.

“They should tell us as soon as we walk in the gate,” Pather said. “We found out that the day before we were attacked someone else fell prey, and the Sunday before our attack, two women were also attacked. Had we known it was not safe we would never have come here or would’ve been better prepared.”

What emerged during the session was that there are hotspots where people get attacked; the men probably slept overnight and targeted hikers in the morning and, that in most cases they jump over the fence or had made a hole to enter and escape from the nature reserve.

Robrecht Tryhou, chairman of the Friends of Groenkloof Nature Reserve organisation, said the three main points he wanted to address were the need for the rangers working in the reserve to get more training to handle the attacks; more resources; and, also ensuring the reserve is fenced and the access points checked, including storm-water drains to keep out the criminals.

He said he would table these points at the meeting organised to address the crime problem at the Groenkloof reserve.

Tryhou said 3 000 people had already signed the petition to make Groenkloof safer which would be given to Subesh Pillay, MMC for economic development at the meeting.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 10, at 6.30pm in the reception hall of the NG Church Groenkloof at 75 Van Wouw Street in Groenkloof.

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Pretoria News

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