Despite residents pleading to the local police to regularly do ‘stop and search’ operations on the streets of Laudium, in order to bring down the spiralling crime in the area, police seem not to be interested, resulting in criminals freely walking the streets, continuing to steal whatever their eyes desire.
The high rate of petty crime committed by some, from the increasing number of nyaopes walking the streets of Laudium, is worrisome to residents but seemingly not to the local police. This follows yet more complaints to the Laudium Sun concerning petty theft in the area. In one of the latest incidents, a municipal sewerage drain cover was stolen this past Sunday, on 13th Ave, (near Pearl Str), causing residents in the area to be in uproar, as the now open drain poses a danger to all pedestrians walking nearby, especially to young children playing in the area.
After a conversation with Nerbeda Mistry of 13th Ave, confirming the theft of the drain cover just outside her home, the local resident also confirmed that she had recently been a victim to another petty crime, when light fittings were stolen from her yard. She added, “Crime in our area is getting from bad to worse. We need the police to step up patrols in our area and to search all suspicious people, especially those carrying bags, to be searched.”
Ayesha Cheisenega who works at a shop on 13th Ave, which is near the exposed drain, told the Laudium Sun that she is not happy with the way residents are forced to live in Laudium. “Crime is only getting worse and worse in Laudium. Some of these nyaopes who freely roam our streets are causing problems for us. They are stealing anything that they can get their hands on, just so that they can sell it for a few rand in order to buy their drugs. Now they have stolen the drain cover, which is posing a danger to all of us, especially during the evenings. The question police have to answer is, how do these guys walk away with such a heavy metal lid, without the police being able to spot them and also why are the buyers of these stolen goods not being arrested. Where else should we go to complain about poor policing and about the council taking their time to replace the drain lid at the risk of someone falling into the hole any time now? The council came to inspect the hole after we complained but instead of replacing the missing cover, they just put a temporary concrete block with a hole over it. Why should we, as residents, accept this poor service? We are taxpayers and it is time that we, as a community, demand proper services.”
More dismay was evident after chatting to another resident, Pooja Patel who works at Gandhis, also on 13th Ave (near Tangerine Str), in front of which yet another drain cover has been missing, shockingly since before the first lockdown, two years ago. Pooja reported that a child has even fallen into the open drain. Council workers have been working around the drain for a while now and it is uncertain when they will complete their task and reclose the area.
Cllr Naeem Patel said that he was not aware of the problem but will report it to the necessary council department.
