Mugging at Hennops won’t stop ‘water warriors’

Even though she was robbed at knifepoint at the Hennops River this past weekend, a Centurion woman says she won’t be deterred from her efforts of cleaning up the polluted river.

Tarryn Johnston, the founder of the Hennops Revival organisation, was robbed of her cellphone on Saturday when she and her team went to the river to inspect water levels.

“Nothing will stop me from helping clean up the river,” Johnston told Rekord.

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Johnston said her mugger ‘was only one bad apple’.

Word from the people living around the river is that the mugger is not one of them, even though they have an idea who he might be.

Johnston said she and her team found that water levels at the Centurion lake rose by about two metres in the evenings. She and her team were going upstream to investigate these ‘suspicious’ rising water levels when the unknown man mugged her.

“This guy obviously saw me as a soft target and came at me with his frickin knife,” Johnston said.

“He said ‘give me that phone’ and then we tussled. At some point I thought, this knife is getting really close to me.”

She said the mugger grabbed her throat in an attempt to get the cellphone off her. Johnston said her companion shouted that she should throw her her phone, and when she did, the mugger let go of her, grabbed the phone and ran away. ?I was completely unsuspecting and even greeted the guy as he approached. I did not get hurt in the struggle and a whole group of men from Mushroom informal settlement heard my screams and chased after the mugger,? she said.

“It was quite a special feeling knowing that they were ready to help where they could.”

Johnston did not let the incident prevent her from going back to the river on Monday where she and her team again handed out so-called ‘dignity buckets’ (containing food and essentials) to people living along the river.

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All in all 12 buckets, 12 blankets, fruit parcels and pots, pans and plates were also distributed among the residents.

“A big thank you to everyone who made this possible,” Johnston said.