ALBERTON – The latest case resulted in the hospitalisation of Tiny Serrurier, 83 years old. The domestic worker, Anna, was also assaulted on their premises in Susanna Road, Florentia.
According to Tiny’s daughter in-law Pearl, the workers were there the day before; they got access to the property and had a look around. The next day they returned.
At first she did not want to allow them to enter, but proceeded to phone the number listed in the telephone book for the Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality (EMM).
“Two men posing as Ekurhleni employees gained access to her property. My mom let them in after she phoned Ekurhuleni offices for confirmation of work being done in the area,” Roy Tiny’s son explained.
Pearl further recounts how they have a suspicion that it might have been foreign nationals and not local men posing as municipal workers, because their accent did not sound local to their mother.
Pearl was the second person who was on the scene after the assault. Tiny and Anna were lucky that a neighbour came home earlier and heard their screams for help. At that stage they were both tied up for at least three hours.
“At the moment my mother is in high care at the Union hospital, she is doing okay, considering the beating they gave her. Anna was unhurt apart from a limp that may have been caused by the cable ties used to tie them up,” Roy explained.
“It is important that for residents to remain vigilant, especially when people claim to come and repair something you did not report.
We call on all residents to insist on identification in cases where they are not sure if people coming to their premises are municipal employees.
Residents should know that if the municipality intends to send its personnel to their properties for any purposes, whether being a survey, delivery of municipal waste collection calendar, meter reading – the city will always communicate with concerned residents before the visit.
Even more importantly, municipal employees and its contractors have a clear identification card, and are always wearing a municipal branded top.
In the absence of these identification tools, residents should not open their properties to anyone.
“We have also had cases where people claimed to be municipal employees got into people’s properties and vandalised solar geysers,” Themba Gadebe said.
