Crime in Central has become an increasing concern for business owners, who fear that should it get worse their customers – and profits – will dwindle.
In the process of organising a petition to ask the municipality for additional security in the area, a group of business owners is also using a WhatsApp group to report and monitor crime, and to create awareness of the petition.
While the owners say crime has been a problem for some time, they raised concerns over its perceived escalation since the contract for security guards – who used to monitor the area – was terminated by the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) at the end of August.
Agency spokesperson Luvuyo Bangazi said on Wednesday it was important for residents to understand the security contract had been put in place when the metro police force was not functioning and that crime prevention was not a core function of the MBDA – an urban renewal agency.
Eastern Cape Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council head Joshua Horn, who is co-ordinating the petition, said businesses were losing customers because of crime.
“[Customers] are robbed before they enter the stores and that is negatively affecting the economy of the CBD,” he said.
“Business owners are panicking because clients will not come here.”
The manager of the Laboria Residence, on the corner of Russell Road and Govan Mbeki Avenue, Molly Reed said: “Since the end of August, the area has turned into the Wild West.”
Reed said four students from her residence had been robbed last weekend.
She said about 3,000 students were living in the area that stretched from Govan Mbeki Avenue to Russell Road.
“They will leave [for] the Summerstrand area if they do not feel safe here and we will be out of business,” she said.
Zaheer Soomaar, dealer principal of the MTN store in Govan Mbeki Avenue, said he had noted a decline in customers for a long while and feared that should crime continue to escalate they would move to shopping at malls.
“When the [private security company] guys were there, they knew who the culprits were,” he said.
“Now that they are no longer operating, it’s a free-forall,” he said.
Soomaar, who has been operating in the area since 2000, said another problem was that not all incidents were reported to the police.
“This is not about the business, [it is] customers that we are worried about.”
Last week, metro police chief Yolande Faro confirmed that 11 additional metro police officers, trained in June, had been deployed to the area.
The CBD falls under the Humewood policing area.
Port Elizabeth police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said station commander Brigadier Leonie Bentley was addressing the problem.
“There are sporadic bursts of crime in the CBD area,” she said.
“Robbery of people in the street and theft out of vehicles is a concern.”
Naidu said police deployment had been increased in identified hotspot areas.
Bangazi said the recently cancelled security contract had been put in place three years ago, at a time when policing resources were not what they are today.
“This programme was launched in the absence of a functioning metro police, which is now in place,” he said.
“The MBDA is not a crime prevention agency. The security establishments are there for that purpose.
“Because crime has an impact on urban renewal, the MBDA’s core function, we have to work with key drivers such as SAPS and the metro police.
“The MBDA is involved in the police and crime forums.”
He said the metro police should be given a proper chance to do their jobs.
“It is important that we give the new metro police team a chance to do their jobs”.