Beachfront car guards stabbed
Two registered car guards that were newly stationed in North Beach were allegedly attacked by vagrants posing as car guards.
A MOVE to regulate car guards at the Durban beachfront parking areas is believed to be the cause of a vicious attack on two car guards stationed in the area by men they believe are vagrants acting as car guards and acquaintances of former car guards who worked the area.
The two men, Japie Jacob and his colleague, who wished only to be known as Brandon, said they were stationed at the beachfront parking lot near the old Snake Park site as part of the Car Watch North Beach Community Police Forum. Japie said he had been working along the beachfront for a year before being moved last week to the North Beach site.
“It was about four o’clock on Tuesday afternoon and I was standing near the pine trees between Mini Town and the bead sellers when three guys just came at me with broken bottles and knives,” he said.
Jacob, who is still recovering from his injuries, said another group of three also attacked his colleague who was a short distance away. “It was a group of men in their thirties. They stabbed both of us through our shirts and jackets,” he said.
“I was helping a car out and got a phone call so was talking on my phone when two guys held my hands behind me while one poked me. I managed to backhand one in the face and broke free and then noticed Japie had also been attacked,” said Brandon.
Bleeding and in agony multiple stab wounds, the two walked along the North Beach promenade towards Addington Hospital. “We stopped at the police station along North Beach and they asked us to show them the men who attacked us by they were all gone,” said Jacob.
Jacob had 24 stitches for stab wounds to his hand, stomach, neck and back, while Brandon had 24 stitches to a large wound on his arm, four on his back and shoulder.
The regulation and move of new car guards into the former Snake Park beach parking area came after complaints from residents and the elderly in the North Beach area who felt intimidated by the former car guards.
Jules Williams, an elderly resident at North Beach’s Eden Roc said he was not surprised by the stabbing incident. “It’s good that they are regulating the car guards because they must be registered and answerable. I have seen some intimidation in the past, have seen car guards stand and peer into a person’s car window and have even seen some of them throw coins on the floor because they were copper!”
