Crime catches up with M-Net’s Carte Blanche as TV crew is held and robbed at gunpoint
A new surveillance camera system, Vumacam from Vumatel, is being rolled out in the Johannesburg central business district (CBD) and surrounding suburbs as an R500 million high-tech solution to South Africa’s rising crime rates, but some people are objecting over privacy concerns.
Radio presenter Masa Kekana joined Carte Blanche to do her first insert as a guest presenter but then endured a baptism of fire when Kekana and the crew suddenly became a crime statistic after they were held up and robbed at gunpoint with no visual footage to show for it.
Kekana interviewed spokesperson Murray Hunter of the civil rights organisation Right2Know (R2K) on a suburb street corner in Johannesburg with cameraman Thabo Maleswene.
A Vumacam street pole was already erected on the street corner, but no cameras have been installed yet.
“Minutes later,” said Kekana, “our whole crew was robbed at gunpoint. All our equipment was stolen but thankfully no-one was harmed”.
The robbers – two men – were loitering nearby and scouting out the area and the Carte Blanche team until they decided to make their armed attack on the TV crew.
