Just when will local residents be able to sleep in peace, without having to worry about being attacked by criminals?
Businesses and homes in the Laudium area, are being targeted by thieves on an almost daily basis, with the local police seemingly incapable of fighting the war against crime. Despite the many incidents of crime this past week (and other weeks), with indications that nyaopes are carrying out these crimes, police are not even making an effort to exercise their powers of implementing security measures, such as ‘stop & search’ operations. Many of these nyaopes come from outside areas into Laudium and freely walk the streets, harassing residents for money and also planning their next move regarding who to steal from and which home to attack. The Laudium Sun has once more been inundated with calls from residents desperately asking when police and officials from the local government departments will take action against the nyaopes, who are flooding the area.
This follows yet another incident of a break-in into a business, this past week, leaving the owner frustrated as to how easy it is for these thieves to get away after committing a crime. Sathiaraj Kanagaraj, owner of Saravana’s Pooja Store on 13th Ave, said that when he finished work on Thursday (Oct 6), his store was properly locked up. However he was aghast when he went into his shop the next morning, (Friday), at around 7am to find it in a total mess with a lot of goods missing.
Sathiaraj added, “I live behind the shop and I am generally a light sleeper, but I did not hear anything strange that night. These thieves ransacked the whole shop and stole a lot of items. I could not see at first how they came into the shop and only later, after going through the CCTV cameras, I realised that they had made a hole in the roof. There were three of them. Only two of them went inside the shop, whilst the other one, was passed the items stolen. The stolen items included computers, cosmetics and also some cash. There is crime all over South Africa, but in Laudium it is going from bad to worse.”
The Laudium Sun also spoke to Raj Guru who works at Saravana’s Pooja Store, who said, “I came later to the shop on Friday. There were already people there, as they heard about the break-in and came to give us support, as they know us. Crime is getting out of hand. It is not the first time that our store has been attacked by thieves.”
Sergeant Simon Chokoe confirmed that a case has been opened and is under investigation.
