‘Explore the capital after dark’, despite crime perceptions

City Property regularly holds night walks in the Pretoria CBD to change residents’ perceptions of the inner city as being riddled with crime.

“We want residents to see the city centre in a different light,” said company spokesperson Lize Nel.

“We are trying to encourage people to explore the city and to enjoy the cultural experience it has to offer.

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” she said.

There were a number of reasons for residents to visit the Pretoria CBD.

Pretoria is well known for its historic buildings, monuments and museums that include the City Hall, Church Square, which is home to the statue of Paul Kruger, the Union buildings and Sammy Marks.

“We’ve always maintained that it is the people who make our city great.”

City Property managing director Jeffrey Wapnick said dealing with the crime perceptions of the inner CBD was challenging.

“We’ve found that taking residents and actually walking the streets is the best perception changer. The city walk is just one way of dealing with these perceptions.”

He said in his opinion the Brooklyn area had more common crime than the CBD.

Wapnick added that their walks were becoming more and more popular.

“We are pleased by the turnout at our city walks. When you walk around the centre, it shows that there is a lot of misinformation relating to crime, drugs, xenophobia, etc. Isolated incidents are, in fact, isolated incidents.”

He said to keep safe in the CBD, people had to do the following:

– Be aware – this applies to cities all over the world
– Plan where you are heading, where you will park, the route, etc. so you don’t end up in dark alleys behind buildings
– Don’t display your personal and valuable items such as cash, a cellphone, jewellery in the open
– Should you feel unsafe or feel that you are being watched or followed, ask a metro cop, member of the police or the purple City Property guards in the CBD and Arcadia to escort you to where you are going. These safety ambassadors are a City Property initiative and have been assisting people in the city since 2017.

He said the walks had been in existence for five years and were led by Adriaan Louw, an architect.

The walks are usually themed and residents could be taught a lot through the walks.

“As we have a theme for every walk, we share information relating to the theme that includes interesting stories, facts, historical information, landmark buildings and developments.”

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