Break-in a major blow for NGO
Due to the extensive damage, the director of the Pinetown and Highway Child and Family Welfare Society is unsure of the organisation's future.
ANOTHER damaging break in has left a local NGO in dire straits as the criminals have caused more than half a million rands worth of damage.
“It is just so sad that they don’t understand that when they, the criminals, do something like this it greatly affects the poor and those in need. It is just so disgusting,” said Nirmilla Pather, director at the Pinetown and Highway Child and Family Welfare Society.
The perpetrators broke into the welfare’s premises on Monday evening and gained access to the interior of the building through the fire exit. They broke through the padlock on the exterior gate, broke through the locked door and, once inside the building, smashed through the sliding gate to gain access to the offices. The alarm had already been triggered.
“They trashed the entire security system, pulled all of the wiring from the walls, smashed the alarm sensors, damaged our networking system and broke into both mine and the PA’s office. The criminals cut a hole in the wall from the PA’s office into the finance room to get to our safe. They just knew where to go,” said Pather.
Once inside the finance room, their attempts to break into the safe were unsuccessful. Instead they broke into the various cabinets and stole the society worker’s laptops as well as groceries, gifts, toys, a television set and toiletries which were all to be distributed to the various community centres it serves.
The security company was said to have done a sweep of the building but found nothing amiss as the criminals are believed to have covered their tracks when they entered the building.
“In some rooms the criminals left behind the PCs and took personal and personnel files as well as other business documents. Now we have to go through our databases to see which files are missing, which will take time. When they tried to break into the safe, all they were able to do was break off the handle, which meant that all of the car keys and petrol cards were locked inside which disrupts services. The only people who are suffering at the end of the day are the people in the impoverished communities,” said Pather.
She noted that because of the constant break ins, the society had become a high risk for insurance companies. “We turn 81 this year and in this financial climate, I don’t think the society can handle putting itself back together… or even continuing,” concluded a discouraged Pather.
