It certainly seems that Laudium is experiencing a constant wave of petty crime, as almost every day residents are reporting to the Laudium Sun of their items missing or stolen.
Despite the increase of petty theft in the area and the increased number of unemployed people, many of whom are nyaopes, roaming the streets of Laudium desperately looking for food, but more so money, to either buy the drugs they are so dependent on or to buy basic necessities for themselves or their families living in informal settlements, authorities are yet to plan how best to deal with the growing number of unemployed people roaming the streets. In one of the recent incidents of crime, whereby nyaopes were implicated, a Pearl Street family was shocked to learn that even their dustbins are no longer safe to be kept outside. This follows an incident that took place last Wednesday on Pearl Street, at around 1pm. Pearl Street resident Bilal Raza, told the Laudium Sun, “Our dustbins get collected by the City of Tshwane waste collectors on Wednesday, so I left our two bins outside our yard in the morning, before leaving for work at my food business on 15th Ave, in Laudium. At around 1pm in the afternoon, my wife went out and saw the dustbins still outside. At around 2:00 in the afternoon, the council truck was on our street to empty the bins. After they passed our house, my wife went outside to bring our two dustbins back into the yard. However, she was shocked to find that the two dustbins were no longer there, they were gone! She immediately called me and informed me about the missing dustbins. I drove around trying to see if I could find the dustbins as they had our house number painted on them. It is very disappointing that we live in a crime- ridden community like this, where these nyaope boys steal anything and openly walk away with it, without any consequences. To add insult to our loss, the next day a guy came to us and offered to give us a dustbin for R50. When I questioned him as to where he would get the dustbin from, he just walked away and told me that if I was not interested in buying it, there were many other people who would buy the bin. Although his offer to get me a bin for just R50 was tempting, I felt that if I bought a stolen bin that would mean I’m encouraging them to go and steal another bin from someone else. It is very inconvenient for us, now that we are without a bin, and to get a new one from the council is a long procedure, as we have to apply at the Centurion Council office and it costs about R700 each. Life in Laudium and in this country as a whole is becoming more dangerous and worse each and every day. If we do not unite against crime, we will become like certain other countries and it will be lawless here. Believe me, I’m from Pakistan, I know the struggle of life. Clearly something isn’t right here. This is the third time I have lost my dustbins. I have not opened a case, as the police will not do anything to catch the thieves.”
