Seven men, believed to be among South Africa’s most destructive and lawless graffiti vandals, were arrested in Durban yesterday – while allegedly in the middle of a vandalism spree.
The arrests were made in Sydney Road, an industrial area of Durban and among the area’s hardest hit by vandalism. Three of those arrested yesterday afternoon have previous convictions or were breaking their parole conditions at the time of their arrest.
Private Investigator Allan Alford of Lane and Associates said the arrests were part of a larger investigation into vandalism and that yesterday’s arrests were “only the beginning.”
Lane and Associates were hired by the Durban Metro to assist in bringing the vandals to book after the city was forced to waste nearly R1 million cleaning up after the graffiti gangs before the Fifa World Cup.
The suspects were taken to Umbilo Police Station where several of them allegedly claimed to be spraying walls that were private property and which they had permission to paint. City engineer Mike Diamond was summoned to the police station where he gave a statement confirming the walls the men were caught vandalising were municipal property – and stating that the men did not have permission to spray or paint the walls.
Police confirmed yesterday that they were looking for a number of other suspects, including a group from the Durban North area, who recently vandalised a Hindu temple and Durban’s new Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The group, composed of several smaller “crews” are believed to have travelled around the entire country – spraying their “crew” names on walls, cars, trucks and even police cars. Among the names of vandalism crews that are being investigated are: ALT, SRC, QUEST as well as DTC – short for “Destroy the City,” TAO – meaning “Take on Authority” and OFC – the “Oh F…. Crew.”
The men, all from wealthy and privileged backgrounds, are believed to have spray-painted public buildings in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. A web-site set up by the men shows that some of their associates have travelled to London, Amsterdam and Paris where they have sprayed buildings with graffiti.
The suspected leader of the group, who is the son of a senior justice department official, allegedly organised yesterday’s vandalism party while under house arrest. Last year the man, who will appear in court today in connection with yesterday’s arrests and cannot be named until then, was charged with at least 800 counts of vandalism.
As part of a deal with prosecutors he pleaded guilty to one charge – that he committed several acts of vandalism by writing and drawing on walls between 2007 and 2009.
Durban Metro Police spokesman Superintendent Eugene Msomi said: “These are not artists, they are vandals and their vandalism costs the rate payers a lot of money.
“Yesterday’s arrests are not a once-off. We have been investigating these people for some time and we are going to carry on going after them. There will be more arrests as we continue with our investigations.”
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