Mark Wiley, MPP, Fish Hoek
Having read a number of reports in the media relating to the Sunday murder in Kalk Bay mountains, I feel obliged to correct some glaring errors.
I was personally at the step off point at the base of the scene shortly after it was reported. I led two police officers up the mountain as I have good knowledge of the paths.
En route we came across the wife of the deceased who was being escorted down the mountain by a couple who had met her fleeing along the path.
Upon returning to the point of the incident it was confirmed that the husband had succumbed to the unprovoked, and immediate, vicious knife attack.
At no stage did the assailant accompany the couple on their walk, nor did the wife travel in a helicopter with her dying husband, as reported in quotes by so-called spokespersons.
Regrettably, these callous and grossly inaccurate “reports” epitomise the rank incompetence that has surrounded the ongoing lack of any ongoing concrete plan or operational deployment or response to combat serious crime in the Table Mountain National Park.
Attacks that have been going on for years.
Blaming crime on surrounding suburbs and the multiple points of pedestrian entry into the park is not only a cop-out but also a total abdication of responsibility by a public entity that rakes in billions but puts little back to support the public.
I wish to pay especial tribute to the paramedic, Greg Mills, from Cape Medical Response (CMR) who trekked with a heavy (20kg) equipment bag, in sweltering midday heat, deep into the mountains, to do his work. He did so without concern for his own wellbeing given that the assailant was still at large. He is a tribute to his calling.