Residents living in Laudium, especially those living in Ext 3, continue to live in fear and have once more complained about the lack of police patrols in their area.
The worried residents say that they are at the mercy of criminals who, without any fear of being caught by police, continue to invade their properties and steal just about anything of value that they can get their hands on.
This follows yet another break-in at a home on Kathmandu Str, Ext 3 the previous Wednesday, at around midnight. Thieves broke in from the back part of Thabeng Lekaje’s property, shortly after midnight and stole a solar panel, a gas cylinder and clothes that were hanging on the washing line. According to a neighbour, a suspicious looking person, described as possibly an Indian male, was seen in the yard shortly after midnight.
Thabeng told the Laudium Sun, “I believe the theft must have happened at around midnight or after 1:30am, as I had come home late that night, at around 1am that morning. It was only after sunrise when I woke up, that I discovered that my 43kg gas cylinder—which was kept outside on a stand—had been stolen. When I looked further in my yard, I was surprised to find that our solar panel from the roof was also gone, along with clothes that were hanging on the washing line. At first I thought that the wind may have moved the solar panel and I searched everywhere for it, but it was nowhere to be found. I then spoke to one of my neighbours and she told me she had seen someone who looked like an Indian male, inside my yard during the night. I believe the thief or thieves gained access to my property by jumping over the back wall of my house—that’s the only way they could have gotten into the yard. This situation is extremely frustrating. Nowadays, I can’t even leave my house for a second without worrying that someone will steal something. Crime in Laudium is at an all-time high and it’s not getting any better. We urgently need more police patrols on our streets and especially more visible and active community patrollers in our area. I don’t see any CPF, Police or Community Safety Patrollers around here and the response time when something happens is very slow. Honestly, I don’t know how we, as a community, are supposed to stand up against crime when it feels like the criminals are the ones winning.”
Thirusha Marrian of Kathmandu Street, told the Laudium Sun, “The crime on Kathmandu Street especially, is incredibly high. Every single day, something unusual or disturbing is happening in our neighbourhood. Even though Laudium is a gated area, there’s no real protection. Back in January, a security guard at the Deli Avenue gate was killed—so what safety are we really talking about? It feels like these criminals have taken over the area and crime has become the new normal in Laudium. We’re just expected to live with it. There’s no way out and honestly I feel there’s no hope. The criminals are doing what they do best, stealing and stealing from us and we just watch, helplessly. We read about crime in Laudium each week, but do nothing about it as a community, as it was not us that were the victims. But what we as a community should understand is that today it is our neighbour who was attacked, tomorrow it will be us whose house will be attacked. There’s nothing we can do, because there’s no law being enforced in this place. It’s all just talk—no action at all. Why are the community leaders who took on the responsibility of representing us on the CPF, not fighting for us to have more police patrols? We need to guess whether we even have police or security patrol vehicles in our area. The crime situation is just getting from bad to worse.”
Gashin Thumbran of Kathmandu Street, said, “Honestly, I feel like there’s no law being enforced in this country. We’ve heard so many stories about crime through the Laudium Sun, yet we still don’t see any real action from the Laudium SAPS or the local CPF. Criminals are roaming freely in our community without fear. There is no proper justice system and it’s the ordinary people—like us—who suffer because of the failure to implement and enforce laws. It’s frustrating and deeply unfair. Can we as residents say with conviction that we have a police service that truly protects our community? The answer is certainly not.”
