Friday 3 June 2022 was World Bicycle Day, which shines the spotlight on the health benefits of cycling. At the same time, Gauteng cyclists have raised concern around their safety on the roads and will embark on a 50km ride to hand over a letter to police and department of public safety officials demanding greater police visibility.
On 17 June cyclists from different club teams as well as individuals will band together under the Safer Routes Forum banner to protest against increasing incidents of crime perpetrated against them.
Gugu Mhlungu speaks to Safer Routes Forum march organiser Lubabalo James Mnyaka to find out more.
Just after winter last year, we realised that there were some incidences where people were mugged while running. We normally run early in the morning because we still need to rush to work, or sometimes in the afternoon just after you’ve taken care of everything. Usually, these times are a bit quiet.
Lubabalo James Mnyaka, Organiser – Safer Routes Forum
Recently, literally every week in our WhatsApp groups we’re getting texts that so and so has been robbed or stabbed, watches or running shoes have been taken. It is easy to say police are not doing their job, we must cycle indoors or go to the gyms, but the reason we are outside is because other exercising methods are not working for us.
Lubabalo James Mnyaka, Organiser – Safer Routes Forum
Few police stations have bought into the idea. For example, the Erasmus police station has agreed to do patrols on Wednesdays and Saturdays on the M26 route. We’ve also spoken to Oliven and Diepsloot police stations. We’ve also spoken to CPFs and security companies.
Lubabalo James Mnyaka, Organiser – Safer Routes Forum
We don’t want to be escorted, we also understand that our law enforcement dose not have all the resources that we would like to have but [it will be useful] if they can just increase visibility. It is not just crime, even motorists. Some motorists think we are not supposed to be on the road and we are supposed to share the road and the attitude is worrying that we get from motorists.
Lubabalo James Mnyaka, Organiser – Safer Routes Forum
