Despite crime in the Laudium/Erasmia area still being a heavy concern for residents, police continue to remain silent and refuse to give any daily or weekly stats on crimes committed in these areas.
Consequently, residents remain in the dark as to the latest crime trends, with the local police not even bothered to send any alerts for residents to take heed of. It is mostly when the local police do make the rare arrest, that a big hype is made and press releases are issued about their success. Thus, the community depends on the Laudium Sun to give details of crime incidents, which it receives for stats purposes, from concerned residents. This follows concerned residents informing the Laudium Sun of a number of crimes committed in the area, which the police refuse to comment on.
In one of these latest incidents of crime, two armed Black males, robbed a resident by pointing a gun at him as he sat outside his Bengal Street, Ext 3, home, last Wednesday night, then stealing his Honor Magic 7 Pro phone, worth around R20,000.
Homeowner, Ragini Naidoo, of Bengal Street, explained further to the Laudium Sun, “It was a really bad day for us, as my brother Dhiren Singh was attacked at gunpoint and his mobile phone, which he had recently bought, was stolen. My brother explained to me that he was standing outside the gate of our house at around 8:30pm, when all of a sudden a white Polo stopped near him and two armed thugs jumped out of the car, whilst another was in the driver’s side of the car, waiting for them. The pair of thugs pointed guns at my brother and demanded that he hand over his phone. They rattled him and warned him not to make a sound. Before he could even say anything, they grabbed his cellphone and jumped back into the Polo, which then sped down the street. My brother was extremely traumatised when he ran into the house and tried explaining about the robbery. He bought his phone with his hard-earned money, and in a second, it was stolen. This is really worrying. There is clearly no more law and order in our area, especially in Ext 3. We are no longer safe in Laudium and I believe that these armed thugs came from Itireleng. So often we hear about other residents living on our street also being robbed, but we hear nothing from the police warning us about crime in the area. This street is becoming very dangerous and that is why so many of the locals have moved out of Bengal Street. Now, criminals have taken over and Bengal Street is becoming a crime hotspot where the police have completely failed us. We do not see police patrols in our area and you can even ask other residents when last did they see a police car patrolling our street, especially at night. To add to our woes, many of the streetlights in our area are not functioning. For almost a decade the streetlight across from us has not been working. These dark streets makes it easier for criminals to attack our homes and even attack us while we sit just outside our homes. Recently, the MR D driver who parked his vehicle in our driveway was also targeted, by seemingly the
same gang, driving a white Polo and who also pointed a gun at him and stole his phone. Now, when we leave our house to go shopping or for a walk to see a nearby friend, we have to hold our breath, as we are in constant fear because we know we are not living freely in this place. The thugs who are in jail are more free than we are. What kind of society are we living in, where as citizens of this country, we can’t live our lives while criminals are committing crime and freely roaming our streets? This is insane. There must be law and order or else we are all doomed. The police and all others involved in fighting crime in the area need to wake up. They’ve been sleeping for long enough and now it’s time for them to do their job, which is to make us feel safe and keep us safe in our homes and on our streets.” Zjazelle Pillay, also of Bengal Street, told the Laudium Sun, “I was surprised to hear about the robbery outside my neighbour’s house. I was not even aware of it. This is really bad. People can’t even buy new phones or cars, and
within a second, their phones or cars are being stolen by these notorious criminals. The criminals don’t understand how hard it is to earn money and how difficult it is to buy these things. All they know is the quick and easy way out. We also need to blame our own people who buy stolen property and obviously the greedy thugs who steal from residents. These thugs will sell the stolen goods such as cellphones on the black market at a lower price, but if they don’t get buyers, their market will be smaller. As residents, we need to come together and speak out against crime. We need to think creatively and work together to prevent crime, more so as we know the police in our area are useless. They always intervene after the crime has already happened, so we must take pro-active measures to prevent these crimes.”
Mohammed Sharif, also of Bengal Street, told the Laudium Sun, “I heard of the armed robbery where Dhiren lost his phone. The night before, two Black African guys also tried to break into my house. They wanted to get in, and this happened at around 10pm. I
think it’s the same criminals who stole his phone. Crime is literally out of control in Laudium and one of the main reasons for this, in my opinion, is the streetlights not working at all. The Council must fix all these issues including closing off the area going into
Itireleng from Bengal Str, as I think that will reduce the crime rate. We also need the police to patrol our streets at least 3-4 times during the day and at night.”
Attempts to get hold of Nicolene Delawala, a warden from the Gauteng patrollers, who have a BMW and a bakkie with a team of members for the Laudium area, to find out how often they patrol the area of Bengal Str in Ext 3, were unsuccessful. The patrollers unit was created by Premier Panyaza Lesufi, but to date very few residents know about them and it is unknown how they have contributed to bringing crime down in the area.