The Laudium/Erasmia area has seemingly become a ‘free zone’ for criminals to attack residents without fear, with many residents pointing fingers at District CPF head of the area, Shaheen Wahab together with Cllr Naeem Patel, for the failure of effective policing.
Residents say that the pair has not fulfilled their mandate to the community, which is to act in the best interests of the larger community. Their still being in office seemingly means that the community is being held to ransom and ‘forced’ to face crime. Cllr Patel who also sits on the local CPF committees is part of the Centurion PCO of the ANC who, together with fellow Councillors, members of the Gauteng Province and Parliament, is supposed to address concerns of the community, at all levels of governance. This includes, policing, health, justice and housing. While Shaheen, despite receiving unearned ‘awards’ is ‘unbelievably’ the Ward Committee member of Cllr Patel’s ‘Safety & Security’ team, oversees both the Erasmia and Laudium CPF at District level, he is yet to act on at least three primary functions of a CPF, which are promoting police accountability, fostering co operation and communication between the community and the SAPS and initiating joint crime prevention. Other than taking selfies of themselves and giving ‘fruitless’ statements during incidents of crime, such as “the CPF is at the scene,” the pair is regarded by many as being ‘useless’ in serving the community, having little clue of what exactly is happening concerning crime in the area.
This follows a robbery and kidnapping incident, believed to be carried out on the instructions of a Pakistani syndicate, resulting in a local Pakistani businessman being kidnapped and released after a ransom amount was paid. The incident which took place this past Saturday afternoon (Nov 22) at around 5:30pm, was carried out by four armed Black males driving an unknown vehicle, who followed the owner of Raza Cash and Carry, Ali Raza, as he entered his business premises on Pearl Street, Laudium. After Ali opened the remote controlled gate, three of the thugs rushed out of their vehicle while the fourth, the driver, remained in the idling car.
Ali told the Laudium Sun, “As I was on my way to my business on Pearl Street, Laudium, I did not notice that someone was following me. Everything looked normal as I drove into the premises and there was nothing that made me think any suspicious vehicle was behind me. As soon as I entered the premises, then all of a sudden these three Black African males entered my premises, before the gate closed. One of the robbers immediately pointed a gun at me and the other robber pointed a gun at our security guard as well, leaving both of us in shock and fearing for our lives. The gang forced us into the shop and there my brother, Shahzad Hussain and an assistant, who were inside the shop at the time, were confronted by the other robber, who pointed a gun at them The robbers then immediately tied us all up and started demanding that we give them all the money that we had in our shop. All three robbers had guns and threatened to shoot us if we did not co-operate with them. We were in deep fear for our lives, so we gave them all the cash we had in our shop, which was a big amount. After stealing the cash, the robbers also stole our iPhones and even stole the phone of the security guard. Then, while one of the robbers kept watch over us, the other two were walking through the shop. That is when they saw that we had CCTV cameras installed in the shop, so they took the recording box and even stole the CCTV cameras, so that we did not have CCTV footage of them. They made sure that nothing was left behind that could identify them. That’s not all! After they stole our money, phones and CCTV cameras, they abducted our brother, Shahzad by forcing him into their car. At that moment, there were three of us inside the shop, but we were tied down while they took Shahzad away. Later that night, one of my other brothers received a message to arrange ransom money for the release of Shahzad which he then paid over. Soon thereafter we got our brother back home. I thank God that my brother came home alive and nothing happened to him physically. What I do not understand is how the robbers managed to drive to the front of our property, without being spotted by the security guard, as we also have street security gates. Clearly these street gates on our street are not helping at all and since these gates were installed, crime seems to have increased instead of decreasing. I cannot say for sure, but I believe that the people behind the kidnapping knew us and more about our business. There is no truth that my brother was kidnapped and taken with his car.”
Nasir Mahmood, an assistant at Raza Cash and Carry on Pearl Street, told the Laudium Sun, “I was also tied up by the robbers and we were all terrified as the robbers were armed with guns. We were completely helpless and any small mistake could have cost us our lives. The fear and tension during those moments was overwhelming and it felt as if the situation could have turned deadly at any second. The robbers acted very aggressively and controlled the entire shop. We were forced to comply with all their demands, giving them money, phones and other valuable items. Even after they took everything, they did not stop there. They abducted our colleague and forced him into their vehicle right in front of us, while we were tied up. The entire experience was traumatizing and left us in shock. The level of crime in our area has become unbearable. We cannot continue living in constant fear for our lives and safety. The crime situation is exhausting and residents and workers like us are growing increasingly tired of the violence and lawlessness surrounding us.”
Osama Hussain, a neighbour from Pearl Street, told the Laudium Sun, “I heard about the robbery and kidnapping. I am a businessman too and this incident is really scary. The robbers managed to attack and drive out with a hostage without being spotted by any of those involved with security, from the police and the CPF to the private security companies. I guess to speak about the gates is really meaningless, because since the gates were installed in our area, crime has been reaching a very high level. There is a possibility that those behind the robbery are the very same people we mix with every day, who know about our businesses also.”