Reports of crime and more crime in the Laudium area, continue to be received by the Laudium Sun, with no sign of the problem facing the community on a regular basis going away, anytime soon.
Police are seemingly losing the fight against crime or just remain uninterested in making any attempt to stop the scourge of crime, that is so badly affecting the lives of the community. Residents remain living in fear, behind security fencing and locked doors and are even afraid to walk in the parks or visit neighbours, for fear of being attacked by criminals. Clearly the various politicians, who are supposed to look at the interest of the community at Provincial and National level, on issues such as crime, health and education, are not only not seen, but are unknown or unheard of, to the community. Political parties, especially the major parties have MP’s and MPL’s deployed in the area, serving from the parties’ Parlimentary Constitutional Offices, yet there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of residents do not even know who their representatives are. Off course these so called representatives will spring up during election time and again the very same politicians, who have been in hibernation, will make promises to the community and again the community will give their vote to them for another 5 years.
Back to the problem of crime in the Laudium area; a hookah lounge on 4th Ave, was broken into recently. The Laudium Sun spoke to Ayob Khan, who confirmed the break-in, and added, “This shop belongs to my friend Rameez who went on holiday last week to Pakistan. He told me to look after his shop and to check everything was all okay. Last Monday night I closed the shop late at night, at around 10pm and everything was alright. When I opened the shop the next day, on Tuesday, I was surprised to find that the shop was all messed up and things were laying on the floor. I noticed that the hubblys and other items were missing. I immediately phoned my friend in Pakistan and told him to check the CCTV footage on his phone. When he checked, he saw one guy, a nyaope who we and the police know, dressed in a black abaya entering the shop, on Friday morning at around 1 o’ clock. In fact this guy was in your paper also known as Majozi. The thief stole cash, hubblys, a Play Station, cigarettes and hubbly flavours. From the footage it could be seen that the thief got into the shop by breaking the locks of the front gate and the door. Rameez sent me the CCTV video footage and told me to open a case with the police.”
Ahmed Mohammed, who has a pet shop next door, told the Laudium Sun, that he was in shock when Ayob told him that the shop had been broken into. “I am afraid that this area is getting very dangerous. I have a pet shop next door to the hookah shop and these thieves could attack my shop next. All businesses in the area are at risk. This week it was the shop of Rameez, next week or even tomorrow it could be my shop that is attacked by these criminals. We have to be really careful with these criminals all over the place.”
Sergeant Chokoe confirmed to the Laudium Sun that a case has been opened.
