Thugs terrorise Winterveldt residents

By Tebogo Senosha

Residents of Mathe  area in Ward 24 in Winterveldt, north of Pretoria, have recorded countless incidents of house breaking, robbery and hijacking  from last year but are dismayed that the culprits remain on the loose in the community, free to strike any time.

These thugs target homes that have no one during the day and break in. A community meeting was held in the area on Sunday to discuss possible solutions to crime in the community. Police Forum as well as Community Street Forum were expected to attend the meeting, but did not pitch.

The meeting went on as planned, despite members of the Police Forum and Community Street Forum's absence, and among other suggestions, the residents agreed on buying whistles for each home to be blown every time a crime takes place in the area.

Speaking to Sosh Times, Community Street Forum chairperson, Mr. Jonas Phahlane, emphasised that crime have escalated in the area recently and residents live in fear in the community because of these thugs.

According to Phahlane, few thugs that they have caught in the area were released by the police just days after  being arrested and are now walking freely in the streets.

He also said that they need the police to impose harsh punishments on the culprits before the residents resort to taking the law into their own hands.

"The sad truth is that families of these thugs refuse to disclose them to us and this makes it even harder to get rid of this problem," said Phahlane, adding that all the victims of these crime must come forward with their case numbers in the next meeting so that they could be able to track the progress of their cases.

Several homes in the area were broken into since last year. One of the victims of these crimes, Mr. Tebogo Modiba, said that thugs broke into his home in November last year when he was at work and helped themselves with his laptop and some of the electrical devices.

Mathe area resident, Mr. Jimmy Mokoka, urged community members to attend the meetings and to voice out their grievances.

Mokoka said, "The issue of crime is totally out of control in our area, and the police do not seem to do much about it because we report these crimes to them, but  never get to know how these cases end up".

The residents are hopeful that the Police Forum and the members of the Community Street Forum will attend the next meeting scheduled for March 8, to figure out solutions to the community's woes.