Pupils targeted by beggar woman
The Polokwane police have issued a warning to the city's residents to be extra careful when they are approached by beggars at schools and shopping malls.
POLOKWANE – The Polokwane police have issued a warning to the city’s residents to be extra careful when they are approached by beggars at schools and shopping malls.
Polokwane police spokesperson, WO Lesiba Ramoshaba, said the police received several reports of people who were approached by a woman who asked for money. He said this woman turned violent when her demands were not met.
Julia Moolman and her daughter, Natasja (16), were two of this woman’s victims. Julia said the woman seemed to be in her late 30s.
“The woman approached my daughter outside her school, a well-known school in the city, and asked for money. My daughter said she did not have any money on her and all that she could offer the woman was some of her lunch, a sandwich.
“The woman took the bread and then demanded that my daughter give her something that she could sell. She said my daughter was in a school full of rich kids and anything she gave could be replaced,” Julia told Review.
Natasja said she walked away from the woman, but the woman grabbed her by the hair. She managed to shake loose and ran to her mother’s car.
Julia explained how the woman followed Natasja and demanded they open a door or a window. Then she kicked the car when Julia would not open the window for her.
“I have never seen a person in her right mind do something like that. My daughter tried to help her and offered her some of her lunch, but it was clear she only wanted money.”
According to Ramoshaba, one report puts the woman in the area around the Cycad Shopping Centre, where she broke the window of a house when she was denied money.
“We urge residents to be on the lookout for this woman. Do not confront her. Call the nearest police station for assistance,” he said.
Some schools in the city took steps to get rid of people loitering around the schools by putting up signs prohibiting hawkers from operating in the area. Other schools hired extra security personnel to patrol the area in the afternoons when parents wait to pick up their children outside the schools’ gates.
Hoërskool Pietersburg liaison officer, Anna-Marié Schoeman, said the school took this threat very seriously.
“We are always on the lookout for people who bother the parents at the school’s gates. Some of our parents even went as far as to remove some of these beggars themselves. We placed the ‘No Hawkers’ signs around the school, because hawkers are a nuisance,” she said.
