Police dump city’s ‘loiterers’ on plots

POLOKWANE – People residing on smallholdings outside the city feel the safety of their lives and possessions is being threatened due to specific action taken by the police.

This follows after police officials were seen offloading at least 20 “loiterers” along the side of the road in Palmietfontein last week.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of police intimidation, residents told Review that they were not happy with this state of affairs.

One resident said he confronted the police officials while they were offloading some men along the side of the road, and was told by the police officials that these men were “troublemakers”. He said the police official said these “loiterers” were being removed from the city’s streets to stop them from “creating a problem” in the city.

“These men are just being picked up by the police and dropped off anywhere outside the city, nevermind that there are smallholdings where they are dropped off. The police don’t seem to care about what these people do after they have been dropped off. Many women and children are home alone on their smallholdings during the day, and these men could be dangerous,” another resident said.

According to another resident, he had spoken to several of the city’s senior police officials, who told him this was the way the police were dealing with loiterers in the city.

Some residents said as far as they were concerned the police were just moving the problem from the city to its outskirts. They said if these men were criminals, it would be easy for them to commit crimes once they had been dropped off. “What if these men decide to rape, kill or steal? Where will the police be then? I am scared of the police now, because I feel that they do not care about the well-being or safety of people living on farms and smallholdings. This means that they will not be there when we need them after the men they dropped off here have committed crimes,” a woman living in the area said.

Daniel Ramatsepe was one of the unfortunate men to be considered a loiterer by the police. He spoke to Review shortly after the police offloaded him on the side of the road in Palmietfontein. Ramatsepe said he had come to the city for a job interview but was picked up by police for loitering in Schoeman Street before he had the chance of attending his interview. He said he had now lost his chance to get a job. “This was the first job interview I had in five months and I had no way of letting the man who was going to give me a job know why I did not meet him. Why do the police feel that they have the right to do as they please and not give people like me the chance to a better life?” he questioned bitterly.

Wilma Burger, the manager of one of the stores in Landros Maré Street, said she was very upset when they saw the man who they had given permission to act as a car watch for their customers being picked up by the police. “The police should concentrate their workforce on the real criminals and stop wasting resources on innocent men who try to make an honest living,” she said.

Buks Korff, a management member of the Sector 8 Community Policing Forum (CPF) which serves Palmietfontein, and other smallholdings and farms around Polokwane, said the CPF was investigating the matter and were awaiting feedback from the police after having reported the vehicle registration numbers of the police vehicles offloading the “loiterers”.

“The CPF and the police have a wonderful working relationship for the most part but now and then there are still some problems that need to be looked at,” he said.

Polokwane police spokesperson Capt Ntobeng Phala said the police had been approached by the municipality to remove the men. “The municipality has a contractor who has been appointed to place street marshalls and these men (loiterers) are now interfering in municipal issues. The police also pick up people who are found loitering and remove them from the city’s parameter,” Phala explained.

He further said the residents’ complaints would be investigated. He added that he believed this was a matter of miscommunication between the police officials who were offloading the loiterers as these loiterers were not supposed to become a problem to anyone and were not supposed to be dropped off anywhere that people resided.

“We are here to combat crime and not create a market for it elsewhere. The police are there to serve and protect the citizen and not to move an element of crime to other areas outside of town,” he emphasised.