Residents of Erasmia are furious that despite crime continuing unabated in the area, police are seemingly not doing much to curb the problem and that the community remains in the dark as to whether the local CPF is still in operation, as very little is heard about them and to date no public meetings have been called since the last election held a few years back.
It is evident that it is the responsibility of the Station Commander that the area has a properly functioning CPF, but clearly the Station Commander has failed the community in this regard. This concern of residents follows daring thieves continuing to target homes in Laudium and Erasmia, with not a week passing, when residents can say that they have not fallen victim to such crimes.
In the latest incidents of crimes to hit Erasmia, criminals raided two apartments on the same property on Bart Joubert Street, which have separate entrances from the street, last weekend, without police or private security companies in the area, noticing anything amiss. Yusuf Katkodia, who lives with his family in one of the apartments on Bart Joubert Street, told the Laudium Sun, about his and his family’s ordeal after going out for the day, last Saturday, (Oct 16). “On Saturday, we went out for the day, as it was the weekend. We left at around 10am and came back at around 9pm that night. All seemed to be normal when we got home. It was only when my wife got to one of the rooms that she noticed that a laptop was missing. She immediately shouted for me. We then checked all the rooms and realized that a number of our items were missing, including our tablet, three cellphones, three watches, jewelry and some cash which was kept in the room. We were all terrified and could not believe that a thief or thieves had entered our private space, gone through our cupboards and rooms searching for valuables and then just stole them and got away. This cannot be normal and is totally unacceptable. We were so shocked as to how they got in, as we believed that we took the necessary steps to make our property relatively safe from criminals. But, when I checked our yard, I saw that the thieves had broken the pedestrian gate lock and come in through there. I’m not sure if someone might have been watching us and thus would have known that we were not around or if it was some random attack by thieves trying their luck. They must have had a vehicle to carry all the stuff that was stolen. It is so shameful that we cannot even leave our houses and go out in peace, as the thought would always be with us that someone might come and break in. Despite our ordeal, I guess we should be thankful that we were not at home at the time. Who knows, we could have been harmed, if we were. Erasmia is becoming worse than Laudium and the area is not safe anymore.”
In the other apartment burglary incident, also last weekend, next door to Yusuf Katkodia, neighbour Yaseen Essa, told the Laudium Sun of his ordeal, “My family and I were not around over the weekend, as we left at about 4pm on Saturday afternoon and came back on Sunday night at around 7pm. To our shock, our house had been cleaned out. Greedy thieves had broken in through the back window. I’m not sure how they entered our yard though. But, these thieves seemed to have all the time, as they ransacked the whole house. They stole all our electronics, including a laptop, PlayStation and TV, which although was mounted on the wall, they managed to strip. Our jewelry and some cash that we kept at home was all gone, stolen. It is so unfortunate what we as South Africans have to face constantly, such as crime and even worse, especially in Laudium and Erasmia. The thieves around here are just doing what they want and getting away with it. I heard my neighbor’s apartment was also targeted. Perhaps it was the same gang of thieves that raided both our apartments, one after the other. We are looking at ways to beef up security at our home, which means more money. We are definitely going to put up a new gate. Unfortunately, we do not have cameras here. This is the country we live in now. No one is safe anymore in this country. The only way to win the war against crime, is to stand united as a community. We need to also look at the role our CPF is playing, if it does exist.”
Constable Tumisang Moloto, of the Erasmia SAPS, said, “The cases of burglary and theft have been opened and police are following all leads. I urge the community, to come forward, if anyone might have any information that may assist the police in catching the culprits. Working together we can do more.”
