A dead man was found in long grass near Kraaifontein railway station last week.
Hesme Giliomee, the Sector 3 Neighbourhood Watch vice chairwoman and Peerless Park East Neighbourhood Watch chairwoman, said watch members patrolling on Monday September 9 found the body.
Another body had been found dumped near the same spot just over three months earlier, she said. “The grass is knee-high and makes it unsafe for neighbourhood watches to patrol there.
Even people who walk to work in the industrial area are not safe. They don’t know what danger lurks in those bushes.”
According to her, criminals use the Transnet-owned property as an escape route, and in the past, patrollers have found evidence of people doing drugs there and burning copper.
Neighbourhood watches had cleared the bushes at their own expense in the past but it had become too costly for them to keep doing so, said Ms Giliomee.
“We have tried to contact (Transnet) for a long time to have the bushes removed, but every time we are given different contact details and have to explain our story to new people. At least now we can email so we can keep a paper trail.”
An autopsy will be done on the body to determine the cause of death. “It looks like his body had been lying there for two days,” said Kraaifontein police spokesman Captain Hein Hendricks He could not confirm whether another body had been found in the same scene previously.
Sub-council 2 chairperson and Ward 111 councillor Brenda Hansen said she would meet with Transnet to get the parastatal to clear the bushes along all the railways in her ward.
Transnet did not respond to questions before this edition went to print.
However, Metrorail spokeswoman Riana Scott said although Transnet owned the railway line north of Kraaifontein, Metrorail used that line and also helped to clean the bushes along it twice a year, weather permitting.