Despite the many continuous incidents of serious crime taking place, with armed gangs of thugs attacking residents in their homes or at businesses in the Laudium area, our local police still remain silent, keeping the community in the dark as to how they plan to stop these criminals from terrorizing the community.
Residents remain uncertain as to whether police are even interested to ‘serve and protect’ the community due to amongst others, the lack of visible police patrols and the lack of proper police investigations in arresting culprits involved. In yet another incident of robbery this week, a local business in Laudium was attacked by a gang of armed thugs, this past Tuesday (Nov 30) at around 7pm. Muhammad Hussain, the owner of Nav Jivan Supermarket on Emerald Street, told the Laudium Sun, “This Tuesday was my worst nightmare. It started during the day, when I saw some suspicious guys driving up and down our street and slowly passing by my shop and looking inside. I saw them at least three times passing slowly, and even a taxi driver and a customer warned me about them. Although I was a little scared, I never thought that they were planning to attack my shop. Nevertheless, when someone else told me about the suspicious car driving around, later in the afternoon, I decided to then close the burglar gate of my front door, thus only letting one customer at a time in. But, at around 7pm in the evening, it got very busy, as it was month end and people were back from work. So, I opened the gate. I had a lot of customers inside as they were buying last minute, before our closing time of 8pm. I even forgot about the suspicious car as I did not think that they would be around the area at night, as the street at that time is very busy. But then, these guys came in just after 7pm. At first I did not notice it was them. Three of them came in, three were waiting outside, while one was in the car, a silver Toyota Avanza. Whilst I was busy with my customers, the three thugs who were inside, pulled out guns and one of them pointed a gun at me, and said that I should keep my hands up. They then took my phone and all the money from the cash register, which was the whole day’s takings, as I did not get a chance to clear the till. They slapped one of my customers. They then stole the customer’s phones and searched their pockets, taking all the money each had on them. Then, they noticed the CCTV cameras in the shop and broke them and even stole the computer box that saves the footage of the CCTV. It is obvious that these were professional criminals. According to their talks, I could make out that they were South African Black guys. This is very hard for me. Firstly, goods are becoming more expensive and it is even hard to get stock. My customers are also complaining about the high prices and now these criminals are taking the little profit we make, away from us. Now I have to look for money to buy more stock. What is more worrying, is the poor service from the police. Although I called them immediately after the thugs left, they came only one and half hours later. My friends also went to the police station to call them, but they took their time to respond. When I gave the police the number plate details of the Toyota, (876WCG), the police said it was not registered to any car, and that it was probably a fake number plate.”
Sergeant Simon Chokoe, said, “Police in Laudium are investigating a case of a business robbery that happened on Emerald Street on 2021-11-30 evening in Laudium. It is alleged that the victim was at his shop on Emerald Street on the above mentioned date, when three unknown males, all armed with firearms entered his shop and demanded money at gun point. It is further alleged that two of the three suspects both armed with firearms jumped the counter and ordered him to sit down, while another one held customers at gun point. One black monitor to the value of R2500 and a receiver to the value of R2000.00 was taken. No shots were fired and no one was injured. The suspects fled the scene. Police are pleading to anyone with information which might lead to the arrest of the suspects to contact the SAPS on 0860010111 or contact the local police station. Police are further urging the community to report any suspicious motor vehicle or person to the police without fear. Together we can create safer communities.”
