UPDATE: Enclosing bridges was “all talk”

A relative of the young Vereeniging siblings who were tragically killed by a rock dropped from an N2 bridge near Ballito in December has said the family were still in shock and were disappointed that little has been done to prevent further incidents.

“In our religion we believe that everything happens for a reason, so we believe that it was their time to go. This does not lessen the pain and the family are still mourning Amina, who was only 16, and Abdur who was 12,” said their cousin, Mohammed Haffejee of Durban.

“We have agreed that authorities must put up steel fencing on bridges as a number of other rockthrowing incidents took place soon after. We are disappointed that this will not be done. The last thing we want to see is for this to happen to someone else and for another family to go through this.”

Also read: Ethekweni deputy mayor backtracks on enclosing bridges

Last week Ethekwini Metro deputy mayor Fawzia Peer back-peddled her earlier calls for barriers to be placed on all bridges over major roads saying that it is no longer a “viable option”, mainly due to a pending court case against the South African Road Agency (SANRAL).

Peer told the Courier that after a meeting between the Metro and SANRAL it was discovered that only two bridges belonged to the municipality.

She said she had not known this before making claims of the Metro possibly enclosing the bridges.

“We as Metro can tell SANRAL that bridges need to be enclosed to save lives. That’s our right. However, a rock was thrown from one of the bridges that have already been enclosed. The driver has taken SANRAL to court because he believed that SANRAL knew it was a high-risk area merely because they enclosed the bridge. He claims SANRAL should be held responsible for incidents that take place in what they knew to be a high-risk area. We cannot fence the bridges until the case is resolved and that could take years,” she said.

For more rock throwing updates click HERE

SANRAL eastern region design and planning manager Ravi Ronny said the Blackburn Bridge and the bridge near South Coast Ultra City were the only two that have been enclosed.

“As the matter is in court, we cannot divulge the details of the claim,” he said, referring to the court case.

The Metro deputy mayor now says that enclosing the bridges is the last option.

“So far we have SAPS and Metro police patrolling high-risk areas. We have also had vegetation cut next to bridges where these criminals are hiding. There are CCTV cameras which are being closely monitored and thus far, we have not heard of anymore incidents. We hope it stays this way.”

DA Ethekwini councillor Geoff Pullan said he was not surprised by the change of plans as he did not believe it would happen in the first place.

“It was just a knee jerk reaction to make the Metro look as if they were doing something when actually they did not have a clue what to do. This would be a costly affair firstly and it would not have helped the situation. Rocks could still be thrown from fenced bridges and motorists would have difficulty seeing someone standing on the bridge as the fencing would hide them. Metro and Fawzia Peer’s suggestions were just a way for them to score political points, it was not about the people.”

Umhlali SAPS spokesperson Vinny Pillay said there have been no further rock-throwing incidents locally.

No arrests have been made in relation to previous cases.

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