As the crime wave continues in the Laudium area, leaving residents living in fear and uneasy, police are yet to convince the public that they are indeed protecting and serving the community, as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
Each day, more and more residents are losing confidence in the ability of the local police in being able to stop this continuing crime wave, affecting all sectors of the community. Even religious organisations that assist the poor with food on a daily basis, have become targets of heartless criminals, who have no shame in ‘biting the hand that feeds them’. Many residents who have fallen victim to house break-ins recently, told the Laudium Sun, that they suspect that most of the break-ins are carried out by nyaopes, who trash the premises of their victims by throwing furniture and other goods all over the floor and even damaging some.
This follows the premises of a local charitable welfare organization on Carmine Street being vandalized recently, after being broken into. When staff of the well-known Institute of Islamic Services (IIS) got to their premises this past Saturday morning, at around 8 am, they were in complete shock. At first, they noticed one of the front windows had been broken. Then, when they went inside, they found the entire place had been ransacked, with a number of items missing.
The manager of the Institute, Suliman De Freitas, explained further to the Laudium Sun, “It was around 8am that Saturday morning when myself and Thobela, our assistant, reached work at around the same time. We were shocked to find that the front window of the place had been broken. We then quickly went into the premises and found the place in a mess. I opened the office only to find that all the office equipment, including the computers were missing. These thieves had no respect even for the various prayer books we had on the shelves. They were all strewn on the floor, with some even torn up. I then went upstairs where we have another office. Unfortunately, these greedy thieves even stole the computers from there. We were all in shock and could not figure out how many thieves had come into the premises, as we do not have CCTV cameras. I, however, suspect that this theft occurred sometime during Friday night. The crime situation is getting out of control in Laudium and I just hope that the police will increase their patrols more effectively.”
Thobelo Dawood, who works as a graphic designer at the Institute, told the Laudium Sun, “I was in shock when we opened up on Saturday morning, because when we left the evening before, everything was locked and was in order. I strongly believe this theft was the work of nyaopes. It is so sad that these thieves did not even have any consideration for the fact that we, at the IIS, help so many of the nyaopes with food, yet they broke in, stole the valuable equipment and left the place in a mess.”
