A 39-year-old SAPS sergeant and a security guard were shot and wounded after a group of armed men attacked a cash-in-transit (CIT) vehicle in Macassar on the Cape Flats on Thursday, 29 April.
“Three suspects were arrested and five firearms, including three AK-47 rifles as well as five vehicles, were seized in Stellenbosch. Two of the vehicles were hijacked by the suspects as they fled the Macassar scene,” according to a SAPS statement after the incident.
According to SAPS spokesperson Vish Naidoo, the SAPS does not believe that the three suspects arrested were the only ones involved.
Reinforcements consisting of local police, tactical response teams and air support responded immediately, quickly foiling the robbery and tracking the suspects to a Kayamandi taxi rank in Stellenbosch, the statement read.
It was a relief for Norbert Rehder, a Cape Town-based freelance tour guide for 32 years, to take a group of tourists around Stellenbosch, in the Cape Winelands. It was his first tour in a year.
Rehder is one of thousands of tour guides across the country who have been shut out of work since March 2020.
A group of tourists moving about the streets of Stellenbosch is reminiscent of when the tourist town buzzed with international visitors in guesthouses and galleries and on wine farms.
Rehder landed this particular tour – a group from Taiwan and Germany – thanks to his ability to converse in German. Not all tour guides have been as lucky.
However, this did not meet with universal approval.
One student asked: “Are you for the students or are you for management?”
Another said: “There are students not registered; students that are not recognised as SU students… why is it a challenge to lift the block [now]?”
Evidently, some were not pleased with the institution’s response or the SRC efforts to help alleviate financial anxiety.
About 543 Stellenbosch University students are unable to register because of debt, and some of their fees will be paid by the Action 4 Inclusion initiative.
Nomzamo Buthelezi, the SRC’s societies council chairperson and policy officer, said the remainder of the 543 students not covered by the initiative would be referred to the university’s Student Debt Task Team. However, all 543 students’ debt would be cleared by the close of registration.
Vicious, thick smog hovered over the Cape Winelands District Municipality for the greater part of last week. The air has been stiff with heat for the past week, but now and then the southeaster picks up. Usually, relieved locals would welcome a breeze in the scorching heat that February brings, but not amid a week-old wild fire gone loose.
Firefighters continue to battle a blaze that rages on in the peaks of Bothmaskop and Jonkershoek. At the time of publication, two firefighters had sustained serious injuries. No farmland or property had been damaged but an estimated 13,600 hectares had burnt.
Stellenbosch local Theo van Heerden says it has felt like living next to a volcano this past week, since the fire made its way into the Cape Winelands District. (Photo: Rebecca Pitt)
DEFERRED: Adelaide House in Malvern; Cllr John Raine A DECISION over whether to allow a controversial plan to convert a former care home into flats has been delayed. Malvern Hills District Council s planning committee agreed to defer a decision on Rooftop Housing s plan to convert Adelaide House in Malvern into eight flats over concerns about parking. The former care home in Park Road would be converted into eight flats with 11 car parking spaces but councillors delayed a decision to allow for a visit to see the size of the land. Cllr John Raine said he, and the rest of West Malvern, was pleased to see plans to refurbish and reawaken Adelaide House but was concerned about the space set aside for parking.