Residents are fast realizing, that the promises made by the ruling ANC party during the dawn of democracy in 1994, that South Africa would be a better place to live in, with freedom of movement, service delivery and rule of law for all people being one of their key notes, were merely a ‘pipe dream’ and an election slogan.
Residents living in the Laudium area, know too well that they cannot depend on politicians to act on their behalf and in their interest. The crime situation is just but one example, with local residents being fed up with the ongoing crime realizing that they cannot depend on the police to protect them and their properties, then deciding out of desperation to dig deep into their pockets and install controlled gates in a number of neighborhoods, closing off a number of streets in the area.
However, although crime seems to have been brought down due to these street gates, residents are warned to still take the necessary precautions at their homes, as criminals do, from time to time, manage to bypass these gates. However, the Laudium CBD and other main streets such as Jewel Str (nearer to 1st Ave), which are not gated due to the logistical nature of the area and the importance of free movement for both customers and delivery vehicles, remains a problem concerning crime.
In one of the latest incidents of crime in this area reported to the Laudium Sun for stats purposes, armed thugs pounced on a business situated at the top Engen garage on Jewel Str this past Monday (Dec 9). Despite the area being busy, an armed gang of three thugs, pounced on the business known as ‘Factory Shop’ in the morning, soon after it was opened, demanding money from the owner.
However, getting any money was not as easy as they expected, as the owner resisted and fought back. Lawi Mukadam (70) the owner of Factory Shop in Laudium, explained to the Laudium Sun what transpired on the Monday morning, “It was in the morning at around 9:10am, when three thugs came to the shop to rob us. When I spotted them I immediately knew they were trouble, but they were so quick as one of them immediately rushed me with a gun. The other thug stationed himself at the front door, while the third thug appeared to serve as a lookout as he was walking in and out of the shop. The thug who rushed me, kept on hitting me on my head with the butt of his gun, demanding money from me. However, my instincts kicked in and despite the thug having a gun in his hand, I gave him a full punch which knocked him down. I then immediately moved nearby to where I had a knife on the counter. When the thug saw me grabbing the knife, he realized that I was not going to allow him to rob or harm me, so he sort of crawled and ran out of the shop with the other two thugs following him out. For a moment I thought of holding him back and stabbing him, but then I thought it would be better to let him go and hoped he and his partners in crime learned their lesson, that not
everyone in Laudium is an easy target for crime. I know I took a chance when I hit the guy with the gun as he could have shot me, but it was done at that moment when I just thought it was either me or him. Fortunately, these thugs did not harm me seriously and they did not manage to steal anything from my shop.”
Lawi added, “I urge all shop owners in the Laudium area to remain vigilant, because these people might come back and attempt to rob another shopkeeper. We also need to have more police patrols in the area and good CCTV cameras in the CBD, as I believe that these guys must have come with a car that was waiting for them nearby.”
The robbery has been reported to the local police, who refused to comment. No arrests have been made at this time, but apparently police are believed to be working on the CCTV footage from the Engen garage to see if they can follow any leads in catching the culprits involved.