South Africa safety warning: Famous botanical garden in Nelspruit: visitors increasingly targets of black males with machetes: while the cycads are guarded 24/7 - the visitors to the events are not guarded by the management of the garden at night - they DO guard the cycads though.
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Kenny Baumgart, survives attack by four black men with machetes, Red Leaf Tea Garden,
Nelspruit Nelspruit, Nov 29 2014: during the daytime, the curator of the world-famous botanical garden has guards posted at the rare cycad plants. But at night, the organisers of events
are responsible for security. People are no longer allowed to go down to the river without a guard... The botanical garden is being plagued by armed attacks by black males who speak IsiSwati and are armed with machetes...
Nov 29 2014, NELSPRUIT - "A man attending a wedding in the botanical garden told his wife they should bring their children there some time. A few hours later he was attacked in the parking lot by four panga-wielding assailants.
This was less than a month after a family who had been strolling in the garden had been robbed by men also carrying pangas ( machetes ) . Earlier this year the garden also suffered a spate of attacks.
Mr Kenny Baumgart was attending a wedding at Red Leaf Tea Garden on Saturday November 29. At about 20:30 he went to fetch his wife’s flats from his vehicle which was parked on the other side at Kazuri Restaurant. After he had hitched a ride from friends leaving the party, four men jumped out of the bush with pangas.
“The one took a swing at my head but missed,” he told Lowvelder. They stole his money, phone, shoes and jacket, and ransacked his vehicle. They then tied him up with shoelaces and a rope, and threw his wife’s jacket over his face.
They beat him to the ground and left him in the bush.
Before they left, however, they asked Baumgart when the other people would arrive. He didn’t get a good look at the suspects. “It was so dark and I was lying face down. They left the car behind because I heard the one say none of them could drive. They then tossed the keys into the bush.”
Baumgart said he doubted they were South African as they spoke broken siSwati. He managed to break free and retrieve his keys. “My hands were already turning blue from the blood flow being cut off.” He returned to the party with his car and the police were summoned to the scene.
“I am upset with the security. Now we can’t go there any longer. “There were no lights, and that I can’t understand.”
Mr Taki Mamatsharaga, the curator at the garden, said the security fell outside his jurisdiction after 18:00. “After-hour functions are outside my area of responsibility. “What happens then is up to the organisers of the event.”
Mr Leslie Wright, owner of Red Leaf, said they put a lot of security measures in place during events. “He left his vehicle on the other side of the garden. “On my side we had security, armed guards and floodlights.” He said all his guests were told to bring their vehicles into the garden and were not permitted to walk around.
Mr Shaun Terblanche, operational manager of J&M Security’s armed response team, said they were looking at installing wild cams to try and obtain pictures of the suspects.
“We have determined the routes they use to go in and out of the garden but usually there is too long a lapse in time before we are called in.”
Terblanche and Mamatsharaga confirmed they had three roaming guards in the park by day, along with one at the gate and one in the vicinity of the buildings.
At night they only had one guard at the gate and one guarding the cycads. Mamatsharaga added they were doing everything in their power to prevent another attack on site.
People were no longer allowed to go down to the river without a guard.
https://www.facebook.com/boerekrisisaksie/photos/a.178568022169751.48293.116298045063416/1043318482361363/?type=1&theater
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