Vhembe residents frustrated as crime continues unabated
The Magau community threatens to take matters into their own hands amid surge in crime, citing frustration with inadequate policing.
LIMPOPO – The community of Magau has threatened to take the law into their own hands if a plan is not made to stop the spate of burglaries, cable theft and robberies in the village.
The village seems to be under attack from especially cable thieves, also called ezinyoka, who have in recent times become more brazen in their crime sprees. Thieves not only target the electricity supply lines, but also remove cables from houses.
According to residents, cable theft is one of the reasons for poor service delivery in the village.
A community member, Ntshenge Malema, threatened that the community would take the law into their own hands should the police fail to curb the ongoing crime. He said residents were fed-up with crime “and the thugs who have been terrorising the community for a long time”.
He said housebreaking and theft cases in the area had reached an intolerably high number, but that the police were dragging their feet in solving these cases.
He appealed to the community to come forward and furnish them with information that can bring the culprits to book.
He said that cable theft has hurt the economy as the supply of essential services such as water, electricity and telecommunication networks got disrupted.
He said although the Makhado Municipality had embarked on an intensive drive to educate users about the dangers of cable theft, the criminals were not deterred at all.
He urged everyone to be united in the fight against crime.
“All we want is a crime-free village. This can be done if we do away with incompetent policing as this has caused in increase in crime. One morning I woke up very early and switched on the light, but there was no power,” said one victim who wants to remain anonymous.
She told CV that she only realised the cable had been cut when she left her house. I could hardly believe my eyes and I kept on looking around, thinking I would see the cables, but they were no more,” she said.
Spokesperson for the police in Vhembe, Warrant Officer Vuledzani Dathi said the police appealed to the community to come forward and furnish them with the relevant information that could bring the culprits to book.
“We are appealing to anyone who has information regarding cable theft in the area to contact us, so that we can successfully arrest the people who are behind this,” said Dathi.
