A Durban man plans to walk around the country on stilts for almost 5Â 000km to raise crime awareness and fund victim care centres.
Said Charles de Vos on Tuesday, the day before the start of his 4Â 912km trek: ”You may think this is the craziest thing you have ever heard of, but if you are serious about fighting crime in a unique way, nothing is crazy.”
He said in the past 16 years, he has been attacked and robbed nine times, stabbed four times and forced to look down the barrel of a revolver.
”If his happens to you, you become very serious about fighting crime,” he said.
De Vos is also trying to break a world record for a long-distance walk on stilts.
He said the current record for such a feat is held by an American who walked on stilts for 4Â 804km.
The 55-year-old’s walk is to start in Durban on Wednesday morning in front of the city’s metro police headquarters.
”From Durban, I will start walking to Pretoria. After Pretoria, I will head to Cape Town and then work my way back to Durban again,” the crime fighter said. He estimates his trip will take six months to complete.
De Vos will stop in several towns to give speeches on crime awareness and prevention. He said money raised from the trip will be used to fund national victim care centres, crime awareness campaigns and skills development centres in rural areas in order to prevent socio-economic crime.
”My walk is being sponsored by several companies that have supplied my stilts, a tracking device to record my speed, location and distance travelled, a cellphone and a trailer that I will be dragging behind me with my supplies,” he said.
De Vos said he will start his day by walking for five hours, resting for an hour and then continuing to walk into the early evening.
”The temperature and weather will not bother me. I have my reflective jacket and my food and water in the trailer,” he said.
In 2000, De Vos had cycled around the country for a similar crime-prevention campaign.
Said police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Mohlabi Tlomatsana: ”He will be stopping in the smaller towns, giving speeches on crime awareness and prevention, meeting the station heads in smaller towns, and in larger cities meeting the area commissioners.”
Tlomatsana said the police welcome all efforts by the public to help in the fight against crime. — Sapa