House break-ins or burglary remain one of the major crime issues facing South Africans throughout the country, including residents in the Laudium and Erasmia area.
In a report released this week by Statistic South Africa, there were an estimated 1,4 million house break-ins that occurred during the past 12 months (2021/22 period), which was found to be the most common crime experienced by households, averaging more than 110,000 homes being attacked by thieves each month. These figures could be much higher, as many people have lost confidence in the police and as such do not see the need to report cases. It also follows President Cyril Ramaphosa, not reporting to police, the theft of American dollars at his farm, Phala Phala. The figures also do not include house robberies, where violence or the threat of violence occurred. What is also worrying for local residents from the report, is that the most vulnerable group that are victims to these house break-ins are ‘Indian/Asian owned households, followed by Whites, with both low and high income groups being affected.
The release of the data by Stats SA, has come as no surprise to local residents who, for a long time, have been saying that crime in Laudium is very high. This follows yet another house break-in case reported to the Laudium Sun, this past week, by concerned residents, for stats purposes. Surprisingly, the burglary occurred in the early evening of a Saturday night, and on a street that is fairly busy during that time, due to people frequenting a famous braai place, Zubies Braai, being next door to the home that was burgled.
Home owner, Sudarshni Chinsamy, of Heliodor Street, told the Laudium Sun, “My mother and I went for a birthday party to ‘River Runs Through it’ near Laudium, this past Saturday (August 27) at around 5pm and came back at around 9.30pm, from the event. Our neighbour, Vanita, tried to call me that evening, but my phone was on silent and they were not able to reach me. So, when we just got back from the party, my neighbour met us outside as we reached home, and told us that she suspects that there had been a burglary at our place. We were totally surprised and quickly entered our home to see if our house had indeed been burgled. When I opened the door and walked through the house, I just burst into tears. I could not believe the sorry state our house was in. It was totally ransacked. Our clothes and other items were thrown out of the cupboards and things were just all upside down. We later discovered that the thieves broke in from the side gate and then broke the lock of the side door, to enter the house. We are still trying to figure out what exactly was stolen, but from what we could gather, they stole a Dell laptop, 3 cell phones, travel bags and even my mom’s jewellery, which was of great sentimental value to her. According to my neighbour, she had seen a blue Mazda at around 7pm on the awful Saturday evening, driving suspiciously on our street, with three African guys inside the car and she suspects that they broke into our house. So, I am not sure if they were the culprits involved in the burglary and whether they were seen leaving or coming into our house. Crime in Laudium is really going out of hand and it is time that the community insists that our local SAPS do their job to protect residents and their property, especially to make our homes a safe place to live in.”
Neighbour, Vanita Patel also from Heliodor Street, told the Laudium Sun, “It was around 7pm in the evening when I saw a navy blue Mazda with three African guys driving on our street, suspiciously. A little later it started bothering me and I went to my neighbour’s house, as I knew she was not there. That is when I saw the gate open and I knew my gut feeling was right. I then tried calling my neighbour, but she did not answer. I suspect that the African guys who were inside the car could be responsible for breaking into the house. The crime rate is really high in Laudium and we are not safe anymore.
Newly elected CPF sector head, in the Laudium ext 2/3 area, including Itireleng, Shaheen Wahab, told the Laudium Sun, “I am not surprised with the recently released report from Stats SA, more so that Indian people were higher targets of thieves, concerning house burglaries. I just hope that our local police understand it and as such increase visible policing. We need to see more stop and search blitzes taking place in our area.”
Spokesperson Simon Chokoe, of the Laudium SAPS told the Laudium Sun he was not aware of a case being opened, as at Wednesday August 31.
