On Monday the 2nd of March at 9:20am it was reported that an employee working from centre management in Clearwater Mall received a phone call from a male stating that he placed four bombs in the building. The general public was made aware of the threat on news24 as well as on twitter from employees and customers who were on the scene. The bomb disposal unit along with ER24EMS (PTY) Ltd. which is an emergency medical care and response service network was also called to the scene and took to twitter informing people of what was taking place at the mall and warning them to avoid the area.
The unidentified caller requested an amount of R100 000 to paid in order for him to disclose the whereabouts of the bombs in order for them to be diffused. According to reports centre management alerted the police and started evacuating the building after 10am. According to News24, “Shoppers and mall staff took to social media to share their experiences. Some told of a near stampede as people made their way out of the mall”. During an interview with News24 provincial police spokesperson Major Mack Mngomezulu stated that, “after the evacuation the bomb disposal unit and dog unit went in,”. He also went on to say that “our men did their very best searching the grounds for the possible locations of these bombs but delivered no further information on it”.
In cases like these the threat can come in a variety of sources and all employees need to be trained and well informed as to how to receive and respond to such bomb threats. Therefore the situation should not be taken lightly no matter how may want to think it is a prank of some sort. According to bomb disposable emergency unit regulations, whether the threat is from a terrorist group, domestic extremist or resentful staff member, the nature of the threat suggests that the response needs to be handled as if the threat was or is from a terrorist organisation. Although many bomb threats are delivered by phone, recent research has indicated that threats are also sent by email, video tape and handwritten notes or during a verbal confrontation.
The following response procedure is stated in bomb disposable emergency unit regulations
• On receipt of a bomb threat, the recipient should contact a selected person on the Crisis Management Team (CMT) once the telephone call has been terminated, the email read or the source of the threat identified.
• The CMT Co-ordinator for bomb threats should contact local law enforcement whilst making a decision as to the following: conduct a local search of the building, evacuate the building and shelter in place and so forth.
• The course of action determined by the CMT will depend on the current threat environment and the debriefing conducted of the recipient of the bomb threat. If the CMT Co-ordinator takes the threat seriously enough and believes that a bomb has really been placed in the specified locations in the building, the entire premises should be evacuated without waiting for the emergency services.
On Monday when the call reportedly came in the above mentioned procedures were followed which indicate that they were working hand in hand with the authorities. “About half an hour ago a male phoned reception to say he had planted four bombs around the property. We contacted the landlord and got the building evacuated”, Clearwater Mall’s manager Cecile Braun during her interview with News24 on Monday 2nd march. However, after receiving and conducting more interviews some of the workers and managers for certain stores in the Mall, new information opposing how the threat was handled was revealed.
According to Babalwa (not real name) and Pinky (store manager as Aca Joe), they were informed that the threat initially came two days before on Saturday the 28th of February instead of March the 2nd as reported. They also went on to say that this particular information was made known to a handful of the Mall’s employees. Babalwa who has been an employee at Clearwater for more than 6 years stated that this is the first time they have encountered a threat of this magnitude. “We have had other threats like small in store robberies but never bomb threats”, Bala said. This new information could mean one of two things: either the threat was both not taken seriously and ignored for 2 days or the management team decided to investigate along with the police before causing any panic as is advised by the Bomb Threat Policy. Taking into consideration other bomb attacks that have taken place in countries like Kenya and Nigeria where many lives were lost, why not at least try to take the matter seriously and act immediately? Why take the chance?
Most of the employees all found the behaviour from the Mall’s management shocking and odd. Most employees were unhappy to go back to work as they were not certain if they were safe or still in danger.
A shopping mall should not be a place where customers can be expected to go spend their money at their own risk, security wise. One of the services that should be a given is a sense of security towards their customers and employees. People should be able to feel safe to visit a mall or come to work and when they do, they should know the management/security has its customer’s interests at heart. This situation could have ended badly from either the near stampede or if the threat had turned out to be true. “I don’t feel safe coming to work anymore because obviously at that point in time our lives didn’t matter”, said Amanda one of the employees.
As a result, the threat added strain to the business for the rest of the week “The mall was practically dead when I came here on Tuesday and my mom was there as well on the Friday” said Candice Cloete one of the regular shoppers.
However, not everyone feels the situation was handled badly. Petros an employee stated during an interview stated that “The alarm was set off and people asked to leave and once we were outside the police and bomb unit went in”. He also went on to say that in his past experience working in Cape Town these types of situations happened on a regular basis. “The way the management handled everything was right because they had to take it seriously and they did”, Petros said.
After several attempts to get a comment from centre management I finally got to speak to Natalie who when asked for a comment during a phone call stated “Sorry but I am not allowed to comment on that matter”.
Through The Eyes Of A Leo 
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