eThekwini says additional rangers, new fencing for Burman Bush
eThekwini officials plan on employing additional rangers at Burman Bush in Morningside after a 60-year-old man was stabbed to death there at the weekend.
"We should be saying - do we have enough rangers here? How can we make it possible that we have at least a 24-hour service after this incident? These are the issues that we are dealing with. Right now, we feel that there is a gap in terms of safety," said the city's head of parks, Thembinkosi Ngcobo.
Ngcobo addressed a community meeting today about crime at the nature reserve, where at least three people have been murdered in as many years.
He believes Simon Milliken’s murder could have been avoided.
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Ngcobo says there are only two rangers patrolling the 55 hectares of dense bush at the moment.
"I'll then ask our management team, especially our capital projects team to restructure the budget. It is part of the immediate actions that we will implement. We are going to have a new fence installed around the area. Further, we have agreed that we are going to be engaging, at least on a temporary basis, four people we are going to add to the security team we have here," Ngcobo said.
Ngcobo says Burman Bush will be now be closed between 6pm and 6am.