Siege on city malls

IN YET another attack on a Cape Town mall, two armed men posing as customers demanded cash before locking up staff and fleeing with around R2 000 last night.

The attack at Ackermans store in Vangate Mall has prompted Community Safety MEC Lennit Max to call a meeting with police tomorrow to interrogate the security strategy at shopping centres.

In yesterday's incident two men posed as customers and entered the store. They threatened staff at gunpoint, demanded cash and then ordered five staff members into the manager's office where they were locked up.

Ackermans spokesman Charl Cronje said the suspects had marched to the back of the store where the staff were cashing up.

Because the store had a drop-safe, the robbers were only able to make off with the daily float of R2 000, said Cronje.

When the Special Task Force arrived, the men had already fled and Athlone police spokesman Ian Bennet said the suspects remained at large. Cronje said the store had upped security measures following similar incidents at other malls in the past six months.

The incident is the latest in a spate of robberies at city malls.

Last week a 40-year-old woman was snatched from the parking lot of a Constantia Mall, after which the three kidnappers demanded a R200 000 ransom. Sarah Lund was rescued three days later near Delft, when police posed as family and friends during a sting operation.

Earlier in May three armed men made off with R30 000 from the Fairbridge Mall in Brackenfell. Just a few hours before this incident, a 25-year-old employee at John Dory's restaurant in Canal Walk was shot in the neck during an attempted armed robbery. The suspects fled the scene empty-handed, but two men, aged 27 and 29, were later arrested.

And a few days before that, three armed men pistol-whipped an employee at the Price Club store in Delft before fleeing with cash.

In April, a boutique manager was shot in the foot when he tried to intervene in an armed robbery at Canal Walk.

Meanwhile, on Saturday night, the 35-year old manager of Simons Restaurant in Constantia was stabbed in the neck and shot in the stomach when five men, some armed with pistols, entered the eatery as staff was cashing up. Police spokesman Keith Chandler said the men fled with an undisclosed amount of cash. The injured manager is recovering in hospital. - Additional reporting by Murray Williams