Residents of Laudium continue to fall victim to crime almost every day, with police visibility seemingly nowhere to be found, even when needed most.
From petty crime to more serious crime, this is the situation that residents face on an ongoing basis, with no end in sight. What is concerning, as has been highlighted many times in previous editions of the Laudium Sun, is that these criminals are freely walking the streets of Laudium, sitting in parks or on street corners, looking out for their next target, without any police intervention. A worrying factor is that police seem either not interested or just too lazy to question and search these criminals, who have no fixed address in Laudium. Reports have surfaced of late that many of these criminals are now even carrying firearms and are freely using them, to rob their victims. Yet, our local police are not being pro-active in doing regular ‘stop and search’ operations.
This follows yet another incident of robbery, involving four black males, with a car, accosting their victim. This time the thugs were, without any fear, despite carrying weapons, parked off on the lawns of a local park, for a while, in full view of passing police and private security patrollers, with none of them even bothering to enquire what the occupants of the car were doing parked on the lawns of the park, which in itself is illegal. Of course, the question remains as to whether the police or private patrollers do in fact patrol the area on a regular basis. Austin Maluleka, a resident of Himalaya Street, described to the Laudium Sun, the events that took place last Monday at around lunch time, whilst walking through the Himalaya Str Park, which even has playing facilities for children.
Austin said, “On Monday, at around 1pm, it was lunch time, so my cousin, Narayan (19) and I were on our way to the Taj Mahal Café, at the HS Ebrahim Centre, to collect our food that we ordered telephonically, as they told us that it would be ready to collect in 15 minutes. My cousin suggested that we walk through the park as it was shorter, so I agreed. As we approached the other side of the park, closer towards Rosina Sedabane School side, we noticed a black Avanza parked in the park with some guys, but we did not really worry, because often people park on the lawn and sit outside their cars to chill. However, as we approached nearer to the car, two guys who were in the car jumped out and just stood by their car. When we got closer to them, these two guys pulled out big firearms, black in colour. I was terrified and thought that these guys were going to kill us, so I started running for my life, without even realizing that my cousin was not running with me. I then quickly got hold of a security guard outside the shops and returned with him, but saw my cousin walking towards us. The thugs were already gone. My cousin told me that these guys pointed their firearms at him and told him to get on the ground, so he did what they said. They then stole his cell phone, wallet and watch and drove off. We then went home and I asked my grandfather to take us to the police station to open up a case. I did not realize that crime is so bad in Laudium. What if these guys shot one of us? Now we are afraid to even walk on the streets during the day. How can residents and especially children even use the park, whilst criminals are allowed to sit there and target us innocent people.”
Tania Maluleka, the mother of Austin, told the Laudium Sun, “Our area is very dangerous. The previous week four thugs robbed my sister as well who lived on Taj Str, after she left home. Those thugs were also in a black Avanza, so it seems that these criminals are watching our homes. My sister did not report the matter to the police and has been traumatized ever since. I plead with the police to patrol our area more often as it is getting very dangerous and is not safe at all.”
Sergeant Simon Chokoe of the Laudium SAPS, said, “A case has been opened and we will send out a vehicle to patrol the area.”
