The City of Cape Town is preparing for the largest-ever festive tourism safety operation, with record-breaking visitor numbers on the cards.
About 4 000 enforcement and emergency personnel will be deployed across the tourist attractions in the City of Cape Town.
It will include a special deployment of Tourism Unit personnel to Table Mountain National Park and the City Bowl.
To ensure visitors’ safety in Cape Town during the festive season about 4 000 enforcement and emergency personnel will be deployed across the tourist attractions in the City of Cape Town.
This was announced during the City’s festive season safety plan launch at the Table Mountain Cable Way Kloofnek parking area on Wednesday 8 November. The operation is in conjunction with the South African Police Services (SAPS), SANParks, Central Improvement Districts and neighbourhood watches. It is the largest-ever festive tourism safety operation, with record-breaking visitor numbers on the cards. It will include a special deployment of Tourism Unit personnel to Table Mountain National Park and the City Bowl.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says technology, including drones, dashcams, automatic number plate recognition, and CCTV, will be a key feature. He says the escalation in crime on the Table Mountain National Parks and elsewhere in the city is “directly linked to the early release of 15 000 parolees” under the special release programme a few months ago.
JP Smith, Mayco member for safety and security, says 80 Metro Police Training College graduates will start their in-service training in the tourism hotspots. “Operations will be even larger this year, and the expanded tourism unit is but the latest example of identifying and addressing a need, in partnership with other agencies, to improve public safety,” he says.
Megan Taplin, Park Manager for Table Mountain National Park (TMNP), says their biggest challenge is the need to deploy resources to cover about 25 000 hectares from Signal Hill to Cape Point. “One of the unique features of Table Mountain is that it’s an open-access park because we want to make it accessible to everyone to enjoy and benefit from. But that also means that criminals can access the park from different areas and there are a lot of escape routes for them.
She adds: “We have special operation teams and rangers and we do deploy them to hotspot areas. It is important for us to work with our partners. We can’t tackle this problem alone.”
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