Table Mountain National Park sees 40% drop in robberies during festive season
Cape Town - Visitors to the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) experienced a safer festive season after robberies dropped by 40% in November, December and January.
This, as 60 crime incidents were reported over the same period, compared to 64 the previous year, while 12 counter-poaching incidents were attended to.
SANParks managing executive, Property Mokoena, previously said the park recorded 177 crime incidents in 2023.
SANParks said the majority of incidents for the 2024/25 festive period was due to robbery, attempted robbery, theft from persons or from motor vehicles, while interventions were focused on poachers during the West Coast Lobster season.
JP Louw, SANParks spokesperson, said: “TMNP recorded a successful festive season with visitor numbers, crime incidents and fires presenting an overall encouraging picture. There was a nearly 10% increase in visitor numbers over this festive season.”
Louw said entries across TMNP gates and picnic sites increased to 232 420 in December 2024 compared to 213 160 in 2023, a 9.5% increase.
“Table Mountain Aerial Cable Company visits in December 2024 numbered 130 675 compared to 109 443 in December 2023, an increase of 19.4%.”
He said the growth in numbers was attributed to sustained marketing efforts and value-add collaborative relations with partners that are now yielding positive results, especially in crime-related incidents.
“Crime incidents verified by TMNP that were reported to our office/staff during this festive season were 60 in November, December and January of 2024/25 compared to 64 in 2023/24,” he explained.
“However, there was a 40% decrease in robberies in comparison to last season and seven more attempted robberies than last season.
“This is attributed to the combined efforts of all agencies.
“Incidents observed during this period include attempted robbery, robbery, theft from persons or from motor vehicles.”
Louw detailed that the latter incidents mainly occurred adjacent to the park.
“The statistics confirm that the increase in visitors during peak festive months presents increased opportunities to criminals.
“It is this trend which informs SANParks’ targeted interventions during key periods and times over the festive season intended to combat possible instances of crime.”
He said while tackling environmental crime, TMNP attended 12 counter-poaching incidents.
These include vehicle checkpoints in Cape Point during the West Coast Lobster season and targeted interventions to disrupt abalone poaching.
Louw said other crimes included cases of bark stripping, stolen plants (medicinal) and cases of abandoned marine items.
The use of the SANParks helicopter from the Kruger National Park assisted in surveillance of both crime and fires, Louw said.
“The effective coordination between SANParks ground teams and aerial teams resulted in a decrease in both crime and fire incidents,” he said.
“We had a total of 92 fires so far in the 2024/25 financial year (which is March to April of a year).
“In the 2022/23 financial year, we had 85 fires and 119 fires in the 2023/24 financial year.
“Fire management along the urban wild land interface is always challenging and we aim to contain fires in the first 90 minutes from call out. Currently we have a success rate of more than 83%.”
According to Cape Town Tourism, regional travel saw an impressive 22.5% jump, and international arrivals climbed by 3.7%.
They said the Cape Town International Airport recorded a 3% year-on-year increase in passenger arrivals in December, with 533 829 arrivals.