By: Siphiwe Ngcongco
Irate community members from Ward 12 demolished several ghost shacks in the Chabalala street informal settlement, alleging that they are used as storage for stolen goods.
These community members were accompanied by the ward councilor, Ruiter Isaac.
Councillor Isaac said this drastic action taken by the community follows residents’ frustrations from the spike in house burglaries and criminal activities in Galeshewe. Load-shedding also contributes to elevate crime levels and this results to these devasting activities.
This initiative was in collaboration with ward 12’s unit 5 neighbourhood watch committee on Friday, 6 January. They brandished various tools and headed to several unoccupied shacks.
On arrival, the identified shacks were searched. Numerous items suspected
to be stolen were discovered, including zinc plates, wooden beams and planks, which were returned to their rightful owner in Tyala street.
Isaacs said he fully supported the “anti-criminality” initiative. They are sending a strong message to those alleged criminals to take their activities elsewhere and stop victimising the community.
“I am behind my people. By demolishing these shacks, we are warning the thugs and drug addicts who think they can steal and divert stolen items to different locations. We are watching and we will thrash those shacks. We are doing this so that things do not reach a mob-justice level,” he said.
Isaacs added that “one should not be held hostage and be forced to provide expensive security to their own house just because they fear someone will break in”.
A community member Obakeng Sei said a similar operation happened at unit 2 the previous week. “We established an interim structure to keep an eye on wrongdoing in the area”. He explained that they were slowly creating a temporary structure for all five units of ward 12. They intend to build a profile to present to the local South African Police Service (SAPS) and other relevant stakeholders.
“This is a good initiative to minimise crime and allay community members’ fears because we are already struggling with gender-based violence as the country. We need police involvement after launching one structure for ward 12 to comply with legal processes. On the other hand, the department of Social Development would play a vital role in rehabilitating perpetrators. While forums such as “Operational Fiela” will be appreciated to come on board,” he said.
Another resident, Tumi Moses, said, “the main perpetrators are those buying stolen goods. They need to face severe consequences for promoting law-breaking.
As for the perpetrators’ parents, they need to stop being biased when coming to their children who commit serious offenses because of illegal substance abuse. Households fall prey to drug addicts’ “amaphara”.
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