A Mitchells Plain mother’s traumatic experience during a smash-and-grab attack on the N2 highway has reinforced calls for the City of Cape Town’s proposed R180 million security wall along the notorious crime corridor. However, an opposition party has accused the City of shifting blame.
Masroefa Kassen, of Portland, and her 11-year-old son became the latest victims when their car suffered a flat tire near Borcherds Quarry Road on 13 December, forcing them to pull over in what has become a hunting ground for opportunistic criminals.
“Within the first five minutes, they were there,” Kassen recalled during an interview about the terrifying ordeal.
A lone attacker approached their locked vehicle, threw a brick through the window, grabbed their belongings, and fled – all while her young son watched in terror.
The incident has since connected Kassen to a growing network of N2 crime victims, after a city councillor added her to a WhatsApp group specifically created for people who have suffered similar attacks.
Son needs counselling after highway trauma
Kassen said her son seems to be “okay” for now but she is still actively seeking professional counselling for the 11-year-old.
“I am busy arranging some counselling for him,” she explained. “I don’t want it to have any lasting effects on him.”
The boy’s reaction during the attack was particularly distressing – he jumped out of the car and desperately tried to flag down passing motorists for help.
City commits R180 million for security wall
The City of Cape Town has confirmed its commitment to constructing a security wall along the N2 highway, with an estimated cost of R180 million. The project aims to address the escalating number of smash-and-grab incidents that have plagued the route, particularly near informal settlements.
ALSO READ: R180 million N2 security wall planned by Cape Town to protect motorists
City officials acknowledge that while the N2 is a national road under the jurisdiction of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and provincial government, local authorities are taking responsibility for enhancing security measures.
The wall project is currently being incorporated into the city’s capital budget for the next Medium-term Revenue and Expenditure Framework, with more details expected when the budget is tabled in March.
Opposition slams city’s ‘misleading’ approach to N2 crisis
However, opposition parties have strongly criticised the City’s approach to the N2 violence, accusing the mayor of attempting to shift responsibility while failing to address the root causes of crime.
The GOOD Party’s criticism centres on what they call “misleading” attempts to blame SANRAL for violence along a stretch of road that actually falls under provincial maintenance, not SANRAL jurisdiction.
“The stretch of the N2 between Cape Town International Airport and the city centre is not maintained by SANRAL. This section falls under provincial road maintenance, while the City of Cape Town retains clear constitutional and municipal responsibilities for public safety, crime prevention, and law-enforcement coordination,” GOOD City Councillor Siyabulela Mamkeli said in a statement.
The criticism highlights a contradiction in the City’s position, pointing to the deployment of 44 additional Metro Police officers along the N2 in October – an initiative the City led and claimed credit for, despite now suggesting SANRAL bears responsibility for the road.
“If the City believed SANRAL was responsible for the road and its associated risks, why did it lead the deployment, announce the intervention, and publicly claim credit for the initiative?” the opposition asked.
Wall project lacks transparency, critics charge
Perhaps most concerning to opposition councillors is the apparent lack of formal process around the R180 million wall proposal. They claim the project has never been presented to relevant Council Portfolio Committees, with no formal agenda item, councillor briefings, crime-impact assessment, or public strategy explaining how a wall would prevent organised crime.
“Residents have therefore received no assurance that this expenditure is lawful, evidence-based, or effective,” Mamkeli said, demanding answers about who authorised the project and through which formal process the decision was taken.
They also questioned why a wall is being proposed when earlier policing deployments have failed to prevent violence, and what happened to promised Leap officer presence along the N2.
The opposition accused the administration of “governing by press conference” and using tragedy to “retrospectively justify an infrastructure project while shifting accountability away from the City and Province”.
Community rallies around victims
Despite the trauma, Kassen expressed gratitude for the community response during her ordeal. One good Samaritan stopped to help change the tire, accompanied her to Nyanga police station, and ensured she reached family members safely. Another, who passed on the opposite side of the road, flagged down the Highway Patrol at a nearby corner, she said.
“People normally don’t pull over anymore to help,” she noted.
In hindsight, Kassen said she realises that she should have just kept on driving with the flat tire until she reached a safer area.
“But you know, in the panic, the car felt like it was falling apart, and we were just forced to pull over at that moment,” Kassen said.
She adds that while she’s unsure if the flat tire was due to some deliberately placed obstruction, the fact that the Highway Patrol had to attend to another smash-grab victim at the exact same spot, leads her to believe that it may have been.
“They said that the exact same thing happened the very day before. What remained of that motorist’s window was still laying right there where I pulled over. So I tend to think that it was sabotage.”
