Despite residents of Laudium continuing to live in fear concerning crime, the Laudium Community Policing Forum (CPF) remains distant from this reality and has no clue regarding how to address the concerns of the community, on this matter.
With more and more residents losing confidence in the local police to protect them and the local CPF to represent them with respect to crime, many residents who have fallen victim to crime are not even reporting incidents of crime anymore.
Added to the crime problem is the lack of services by the ANC-led Tshwane Council and the incompetence of the ANC Ward Councillor, Naeem Patel, with regards to poor service delivery including non functioning street lights which, according to residents, plays into the hands of criminals who pounce in the dark at night.
In one of the latest incidents of crime reported to the Laudium Sun, a Bengal Street, Ext 3 resident was hijacked outside his residence, by two armed thugs, who the stole his light delivery vehicle, a silver Opel Corsa. The hijacking incident, last Thursday evening (July 10), has left the owner traumatised after he was approached by two black males, who suddenly appeared from the dark street, as the streetlights have not been functioning for a while now.
Abdul Mukadam, a resident of Bengal Street, told the Laudium Sun, “It was my brother’s Corsa bakkie. He has been using it for a long time and it got stolen right outside our home. As he was driving out at around 8pm, two black thugs suddenly approached him and asked him to roll down his window. He could not see exactly what was happening as it was dark outside, because our streetlights have not been working for some time now. So, not expecting them to be thugs, he thought perhaps they just wanted to find out something. When he rolled down his window, he was faced with a gun pointed at his head. The thugs dragged him out of his bakkie and then jumped into the vehicle and drove off. Due to the streetlights not working, my brother couldn’t see their faces clearly, but he could tell that they were black guys. It was a strong bakkie that we used for many things and now it’s gone. This is a big loss for us because getting a new bakkie is going to be very expensive. Crime is really high in Laudium, especially on our street. I think these thugs may have driven the bakkie to a squatter camp, possibly the Itireleng Squatter camp or even
Atteridgeville. The crime rate here is just too high, with all of us in this area living in fear, partly because we live near a squatter camp and it’s only getting worse. There should be more police patrols at night and our streetlights need to be fixed urgently. These criminals take advantage of the darkness, it’s unsafe for everyone.”
Sonil Moodley of Bengal Street, told the Laudium Sun, “The crime rate on our street is out of control. There are a lot of illegal activities happening in our area. We no longer feel safe at all. We depend on the Laudium SAPS to protect us, but they are failing us. They must respond on time and patrol our street more regularly. On top of that, we haven’t seen any CPF members or other crime prevention organisations patrolling here. It’s frustrating because there are many community patrollers in Laudium, so why aren’t they covering our street too? We urgently need better security. This area is becoming more dangerous by the day and something must be done to stop the crime before it gets even worse.”
Yet another Bengal Str Ext 3 resident, Sunita Pillay, told the Laudium Sun, “The crime rate on our street is really getting out of hand. Most of us live in fear, wondering what might happen next, because every day, crime seems to be getting worse. These criminals are becoming so bold, that they don’t even hesitate to come right in front of our homes and steal. The recent bakkie theft is just one example. It feels like the criminals are growing stronger while our police and community patrols are getting weaker. We hardly see any police patrol cars on our street anymore and that makes us feel even more unsafe and vulnerable.