Despite seeming efforts by the Laudium CPF and the local police to ‘hide’ current incidents of crime from the Laudium community, residents have, this week yet again reported some of the recent incidents of crime in the area, to the Laudium Sun for stats purposes, so that the community can be immediately warned. It is evident that the local police and the CPF only report crime when arrests are made, so they can get a pat on the back.
Although according to quarterly stats (3 months) from police headquarters, that crime in the Laudium area is relatively low compared to other nearby areas, many residents believe that the stats are not accurate and say that either way for them, even if just one resident is robbed in a week, or one is hijacked or one break-in at a home takes place, it is one too much. Many local residents also say that as the local police do not seem to be interested or effective in fighting crime in the area, they have lost faith in the police and the CPF and are therefore not even reporting incidents of crime.
In one of the latest incidents of crime reported to the Laudium Sun this week, following the thefts of two Toyota vehicles reported last week, another Toyota has been reported stolen. Yet, the Laudium CPF who seem to be more busy attending ANC events and escorting Cllr Patel (as they seem to be ‘captured’ by the ANC’s Patel) has issued no statements to the community or plan of action to be taken by the police or more so the modus operandi with regards to the ongoing car thefts and in particular Toyotas. The public till today has not been informed regarding who to look out for, the description of the suspects, if there was a common type of car used by the thieves, etc. The theft of the red Toyota Yaris (Reg No: ZRJ 975 GP) which occurred in the late afternoon, this past Saturday (April 5), outside a Mink Street home, has left the owner, Samim Bapu devastated.
Samim told the Laudium Sun, “After parking my car outside on Saturday afternoon at around 5pm, as I planned to go out again, I was inside my house busy with some chores.
About 30 minutes later when I went outside, I was shocked to see that my car was missing,
more so as I did not even hear the car being started nor see anyone suspicious standing
outside. It was only after I alerted my neighbours of my car being stolen, when one of them checked their CCTV footage, that we realised what had actually happened. Three Black Africans drove into the street in a blue Mazda car. Two of them climbed out, with one
of the criminals opening my car door through the window, as it wasn’t fully closed. Once inside the car, they somehow managed to start it and drove away, without anyone spotting
them, despite it still being day time and a Saturday, when the area is much more busy. It
wasn’t long ago that I bought the car, and the estimated value is around R120,000, but now it’s gone. I’m very traumatized. How can we live in a society where we can’t even park our
car outside our own house? Laudium is becoming too dangerous to live in and we fear for our lives every day. The crime is becoming increasingly alarming, yet the police and other
security organizations are not doing anything about it. Even with this gating system in place,
which residents put up as a desperate measure to stop criminals, seeing that the police were not doing enough to fight crime, crime is still so high. I appeal to the community to wake up and take serious action against crime, so that Laudium can be a safe place to live.”
Mink Street resident, Aziza Akoojee, told the Laudium Sun, “The crime in Laudium is terrible, and I have heard of many incidents of cars being stolen, thanks to the Laudium Sun newspaper for informing us. It’s actually very scary. One of my neighbours told me about the incident with Samim, who lost her car, and it’s truly sad because people save their hard
earned money to buy their dream cars, and in a moment, the car gets stolen. This is really
sad. We need police patrollers on our street, and on top of that, we need a good political leader in Laudium, who has the interest of the community at heart first and not only of certain people.”
When the Laudium Sun asked Aziza if she knew that Cllr Patel was the Ward Councillor for the area, Aziza claimed that she doesn’t even want to know as Patel did not help her when she had a problem with her lights & water for a week and in fact Patel ignored most of her calls.
Ali Mohammed, another resident of Mink Street, told the Laudium Sun, “Crime, especially car theft cases are increasing very rapidly in Laudium recently. I believe it’s an inside job within our community, where someone is giving information to the thieves. That’s why they seem to know exactly where and which cars to target and steal. The police must do their job properly to prevent crime happening in our society and area.”
*On Thursday evening (yesterday) another Toyota Yaris was stolen. (registration number ZRJ 975 GP), near Mink Street by Jacaranda School.