“If the police came when we phoned them the first time, that man would still be alive today,” said a resident who lives close to the Krugersdorp train station.
She was one of many who had witnessed one of their neighbours, believed to be in his 60s, bleeding to death on Saturday, September 11 because no one would come to help.
Another resident told the News they had heard that the wife of the man who was killed had asked him to go to town. On his way back between 17:15 and 17:30 he passed under the bridge on Monument Street and as he was turning into Station Street he was robbed and shot in his chest.
One neighbour explained that they were used to hearing gunshots, so she did not think too much of it until she looked out the window and saw a man crouched over the elderly man.
“I thought he was hitting him, but I realised he was going through his pockets. The other one was standing near the road.”
Soon she, her husband and other neighbours rushed outside to help the wounded man. She believed the robbers to be illegal miners.
They claimed that when they phoned the Krugersdorp Police they were told to phone an ambulance. Even the ambulances they phoned refused to come out. One neighbour, Godfrey Botlhokwane said he jumped in his car and rushed to the Krugersdorp Police Station.
“At the station they kept on asking me questions and I told them they were wasting time, a man was dying. But they refused to come with me and told me to phone the ambulance instead.”
Another resident stood in the middle of the road to try and stop someone to help, but said the police just drove around him.
“So many police vans and two state ambulances passed us as we tried to flag them down. Eventually a police van from Muldersdrift stopped.”
An hour later the police were on scene and the man was declared dead on the same spot where he bled out for about 15 minutes, with his wife and friends by his side.
This was nothing new for these residents and they said many people have been robbed there. They believe the illegal miners wait just past the bridge on Monument Street.
“At night you hear the shots. Just last night (September 13) we heard five shots again,” said Botlhokwane.
He said residents were afraid that the illegal miners would come into their houses next, because it definitely wasn’t safe outside anymore.
Residents believe they would be safer if the trees were to be cut down, the street lights on that stretch of road were to be fixed and police were to become more visible in the area.
Botlhokwane has been living in the street for more than 20 years and said the home he grew up in did not feel safe anymore.
Another neighbour wrote to the News explaining how she and her sister were robbed on the same spot last year, and her sister was almost stabbed.
“They told us they did not have vans to assist us. Instead they gave us an emergency number to call if we saw the thugs again,” she wrote about her experience when she reported the incident to the police.
“How many times have we asked the South African Police to protect us. As a result of their incompetence an innocent man was robbed and killed. If they can kill a man who wasn’t even fighting back, what about the women and children of this community?”
