Good cops must stand together
There is no doubt in my mind that township hostels are often used as hiding places for people with dubious characters and have sometimes become dens of iniquity.
What should frighten most law-abiding Kathorus residents reading this column is that even the good cops in the local SAPS structures as well as those in the local Metro police, are mostly unable to do anything about the situation because some of their own colleagues are in fact ‘criminal moles’ who are working against the interest of justice and are obviously on the payroll of criminals at many of these township hostels.
Of course, without painting every hostel and cop in Kathorus with the same criminal brush, I am aware that not all hostels are the same, and that not all cops are criminal moles working against their own.
While some of these hostels have been converted into family units where men live happily with their families, a few hostels are still used as hide-outs by criminals who want to evade the police after committing a crime.
Listening to a Metro Police officer and an SAPS captain, both of whom tried to calm my anger and frustration at the Vosloorus SAPS outside the EMPD offices last Sunday morning, I soon realised that unless good police officers in both the SAPS and the EMPD stand together against crime, the townships of Kathorus will soon be ruled by gangsters and crime lords.
What was even more frustrating for me, was to hear a Metro police officer declare that efforts to rid hostels of criminals are actually thwarted by some of their own. “We know what is happening at the hostels, and we are aware of the people who are peddling drugs such as nyaope and dagga at these hostels, but each time we plan a crime raid at any of these notorious hostels, it seems as if someone from our side makes it a point that these known criminals at the hostels are warned in advance,” said the Metro officer.
In fact my experience at the Nguni Hostel in Vosloorus last Sunday morning is enough to make every law-abiding citizen in Kathorus nod his or her head in shame. After I was involved in a hit-and-run accident which left my right side mirror ripped off its hinges, I was forced for the sake of justice to chase the Silver Chevrolet sedan all the way from Nombela Drive, past the Vosloorus EMPD and SAPS offices, right into the Nguni Hostel, where the driver finally brought the car to a halt inside the hostel complex.
And it was here that I came face to face with what I thought was going to be my last day in this world. Suddenly, a group of men, some of whom were smoking dagga and drinking alcohol, all stood up and shielded the driver, who vanished among them. As I got out of my car to try to drag the culprit from his criminal buddies, then the whole bunch surged forwarded and demanded that I leave the place immediately if I did not want to die.
By now, the driver of the Chev sedan, the young man I had chased into the hostel, had re-appeared and started accusing me of being a “bully” and said that I had crashed into his car – not the other way round. I then tried to call the police from my cellphone, but realised that I was actually placing myself in even greater danger, as the gang of men started banging on the side windows of my car, demanding that I get out of the car or leave the area, NOW!
Realising the danger I had put myself in, I decide to reverse the car out of the hostel area and headed straight to the Vosloorus police station, where I reported the incident. However, when I arrived at the police station, the policeman on duty could not register my accident case as there were no Accident Report forms available.
The police did in fact take my details and by the time I left the police station, the officer in charge, a Capt Nevhulu, assured me that the case would be registered and everything would be done properly as soon as the Accident Report Forms were available on Monday.
But by the time the police arrived at the hostel, Nevhulu said, both the silver Chevrolet sedan and the group of violent men who had threatened me earlier were nowhere to be found. Relating my harrowing experience to friends and neighbours later, I realised that I was not the only one who has had this experience with criminals inside a local hostel.
By now, I was convinced that hostels have become a haven for criminals, car thieves, drug-dealers, rapists, murderers and a whole lot of undesirable characters who use hostels as a hiding place for their nefarious activities.
