Lady Selborne community goes on a cleaning campaign to fight crime in their area

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Photo: Page3 Reporter

Community members say they have had horrific incidents of crimes in short spaces of time where even a 62 years old lady recently became a victim of a smash and grab crime as she was driving to work around 4am.

It is said a suspect(s) who is yet to be identified hit her car on a stop sign so much that some of the glasses that shattered got stuck in her wound, but fortunate enough she managed to escape before the suspect could get more closer.

These complaints were raised by the said community during a cleaning campaign they were engaged in on Sunday morning where they were cutting reeds which they said serve as a hiding place for criminals.

Speaking to CPF PRO Mr Henk he said they are doing a job which is supposed to be the responsibility of the municipality because they have long been informing them about the dangers of leaving the place unclean with reeds growing so high that one can’t even see a house on the other side and to make matters worse their local park is also not well taken care of.

“Although we understand that the municipality is running on a tight budget under difficult conditions and short staffed as well but all we ask from them is to at least try and show us that you hear our complain and meet us halfway.”

He also added that he thinks the community is slowly losing confidence in our law enforcement agency, local police station as well because you report a crime today a week later you hear about the perpetrator being released and you are not informed why.

A community member Daniel Vuma who said he was also once a victim of a crime where a criminal broke into his house, added that he thinks more can be done from both the municipality’s side and the police to stop crime but they are both moving slow and they will soon get fed up because they can’t keep on feeling unsafe even in their houses.

He said he doesn’t know what will happen if they reach that point, but it is something they don’t want to see happen.

House breakings are not a new thing in the area, in 2017 there was also an incident that was reported where a 25 years old mother was shot dead several times by intruders in her home. Her baby and other occupants in the house managed to escape out of the house safe.

Earlier this year other intruders were also distracted as they were about brake into a house in the area but fortunate enough the neighbor managed to intervene.

Ward Cllr Dzumba who was also helping the community to clean said it is true that the community has been under attack for quite some time by criminals and she thinks it is a good thing that in the absence of the Municipality and the police, the community still managed to come together to come up with possible solutions to fight crime with the little powers they have.

She also added that although the Municipality is going through tough times she thinks more can and will be done to help the community to fight crime.