Thugs use bridge for own devices
For the past two weeks people have been forced to pay an amount of R10 or R20 and women are forced to take off their clothes and allow the criminals to sexually harass them if they don't have money.
KABOKWENI – A pedestrian footbridge has been turned into a toll gate by local criminals.
For the past two weeks people have been forced to pay an amount of R10 or R20 and women are forced to take off their clothes and allow the criminals to sexually harass them if they don’t have money.
One of the victims, who is still traumatised from her experience last Thursday, said, “The first time I heard people talking about ‘Kukhiywa’, as they called it and toll gates, I thought it was just a joke.I was on my way to work when three unknown men with balaclavas approached me at the bridge telling me to pay money or give them something they could sell. I then told them that I didn’t have money.
They demanded my phone and I didn’t hesitate because my life was in danger.
I just gave it to them then one of them who had a gun, said a Nokia X2 was out of fashion.
“They gave me three options; either I take off my clothes and allow them to harass me, they shoot me or push me over the bridge, so I had to choose and I did so. This has left me traumatised. I was praying for them not to rape me and they didn’t,” she said.
It’s alleged that the so-called community toll-gate saga was also occurring at Tekatakho crossing. This has led to community members appealing to the local police to increase their visibility, especially during peak hours in the morning and late in the evening.
Mpumalanga News learnt that this trend first started in Pienaar, then Msogwaba and Gedlembane, by gangsters who demanded payment from community members wanting to cross to another section of the township.
