Warning: Stellenbosch Area

[Loupie]

Hi Guys,

 

I live and ride in the Stellenbosch Area and got this mail yesterday:

 

I received this from a fellow cyclist and would like to warn you as well:

 

Hi, we had an incident Sunday morning ( 26/1/2014) at 9H30 at Stellenbosch where the last rider (Tian Bester) in our cycling group and about 50 meters behind our group was attacked on the bicycle. The man on the side of the road (… green shirt with blue pants and golden earrings)stepped in front of the cyclist, grabbed the handlebar and threw him off his bicycle and demanded at gunpoint his cell phone. With no cell phone at hand the robber then demanded his bicycle. Luckily some motorists and cyclists saw the incident and rushed to help. The robber then fled into the bushes at Lekkerbly informal settlement. The cyclist had some injury with bleeding on right leg. The other bystanders next to the road and residents of the Lekkerbly informal settlement are reluctant to help and fear for their lives if they were about to give away the robbers information. This incident happened on the R304 opposite the Lekkerbly informal settlement and just after the first robot ( turn-off to Cloetesville/Welgevonden Estate) before entering Stellenbosch/Kayamandi.

 

This incident was reported to the Kayamandi Police-station and inspectors already contacted the cyclist this morning to go through some photo’s. ( Great stuff inspectors!!).

 

The cyclist also happen to be a resident of Bellville and student at University of Stellenbosch.

 

We would like to thank the motorists and other cyclists that rushed to help the cyclist being robbed.

 

The other main reason for this email is to bring to whatever authorities attention that everyone needs to feel safe on our roads, cyclist and pedestrians alike. This is happening too often and as a result we don’t feel safe cycling in our beautiful countryside. So hopefully this will also help raise the profile of these types of incidents to the point of some action being taken.

 

All cyclists please take notice and cycle safe

 

Kind Regards

Herman Bester

021 947 3546 (work)

0824968368

PPA-nr: 44175