Andre Erasmus, Richwood
I firstly wish to thank Summer Jacobs for the article (“Richwood residents fence off,” Tabletalk, May 31).
Secondly, I wish to mention that my father has been living in Richwood since 1993 and since then there have been talks of a wall or fence between Richwood and the N7.
As a resident of Richwood and an ex-member of the neighbourhood watch, I’m done with the government and their stupid excuses.
Dan Plato came to visit us a few years ago and stated that erecting a wall contravenes the “freedom of movement act”. But they sit in their gated security complexes with 24-hours security guards and alarm systems, while the residents of Richwood are forgotten, being robbed of their possessions, dignity and pride.
People are robbed almost daily, sometimes residents of Richwood sometimes Dunoon residents walking to or from work.
Brett Herron is clearly uninformed as taxis are not allowed in Richwood. Richwood only has two buses in the morning and two in the late afternoon and no trains at all. So there is no real reason people should be “on their way to work” at stupid hours of the day or night.
When I was part of the neighbourhood watch, we did the maths: if every household gave R100 a month for a year, we as residents could erect a fence at our own expense the following year — put that in your pipe and smoke it.
We can do it for ourselves if we as residents stand together and don’t depend on the government to protect us.
Getting SAPS into Richwood timeously is hard enough… a fence? Never in my lifetime. Especially not when Richwood is only on the map when it comes to voting time.
On Monday, Mr Erasmus told Tabletalk that a girl had been robbed on the corner of Abalone and Annandale roads, in Richwood. “And guess what? The guy ran across the road to Dunoon so who said we don’t need that damn fence?” he said.
Bothasig police confirmed that a case of robbery had been opened.
