Johannesburg East charity burgled, items worth R500 000 stolen

Stock donations, non-perishable foods and gift boxes worth R500 000, meant for elderly people, were stolen last weekend in Johannesburg east.

Solidarity Helping Hand East Rand regional manager Mariolette Vorster said among the looted supplies were hundreds of treat boxes for the elderly, as well as food and prizes for the region’s upcoming golf day.

Electric gate motor damaged

A Helping Hand social worker, Charmanay de Klerk, went to the office, on the corner of Lily and Highveld Street, last Saturday afternoon and the electric gate motor had been damaged, she said.

“The region’s office is a residence with an apartment converted into an office, storage space and training centre,” Vorster said.

“Charmanay called our local security company and walked around the house with a security guard. They noticed there were rows of footprints around the house. There had not been a break-in at the time.”

De Klerk locked the gate because she could only arrange for someone to repair the gate the following day.

Vorster said because De Klerk suspected the perpetrators would return, she requested the guard to keep an eye throughout the night.

Windows, burglar bars and security gates broken

“When we arrived on Sunday morning, we could immediately see something was wrong. The whole garden was full of stuff and the burglars broke open almost all the windows, burglar bars and security gates.

Looted

“They looted everything valuable they could lay their hands on, our donations, computers, radios and prizes for our upcoming golf day on 17 November,” she said.

A large generator, tools and lawnmower were also stolen.

No arrests

The incident was reported to the Kempton Park police and no arrests have been made.

Vorster said the biggest loss, apart from damage to the house, was the Christmas boxes packed for 4 830 elderly people.

“A pharmaceutical company donated numerous products such as shampoo and body lotion [and the boxes were] filled with other goodies, such as chocolate.” The value of each box was about R1 500, she said.

‘Devastated’

“We are devastated, but we are not going to let something like this get us down.”

Action Society founder Ian Cameron said it was tragic that even gifts for society’s most vulnerable were threatened by the crime plague South Africa faces.

A rural criminologist at the University of Limpopo, Professor Witness Maluleke, said criminals were not stealing out of desperation, but rather greed.

With the increasing trend of targeting vulnerable groups, including nongovernmental and faith organisations, the youth, children, elderly, women and persons with disabilities, well-organised criminal syndicates deserved urgent attention.

Criminals are not willing to work

“They have unrealistic expectations to become rich overnight. They are not willing to work hard for their living, with the desire to become affluent in life. Thus, they target these vulnerable sectors.”

Maluleke said the vulnerable were unprotected and the development of human potential in terms of safety and security was largely ignored.

“They are targeted due to their vulnerability status and the nature and extent of related victimisation are often undocumented, with the actual figures of this practice unknown,” he said.

Maluleke said the criminal justice system was not well enough resourced to tackle this criminal behaviour.

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– marizkac@citizen.co.za