We have a Business in Union Road, Roxton, Alberton North, and have been in these premises since 2005.
An informal settlement developed behind our premises and since December 2015 we have had non-stop burglaries which resulted in thousands of Rands damage and losses, not to mention the huge expense of having to add more and more security.
Between us and Fox Security (our armed response company), we have taken every measure possible to stop this, but it’s increasing daily.
Fox responded to our alarm 15 times in a matter of two weeks! The latest incident resulted in a financial loss of around R140 000.
The worst was the attitude of the SAPS female member that came to take a statement. She was loudly complaining about having to wait a few minutes for the responsible person so he could give his statement. Her arrogance and rude manner of speaking to us was just unacceptable.
With every burglary we get the same attitude from SAPS – no interest in the damage done and/or the losses we are suffering. They all maintain “there is nothing we can do, we know it’s the people in the informal settlement, but it’s a drug hole and if we go in there they say we harass them”.
We have identified people from the informal settlement on camera footage and to date not a single person has been arrested and we have had no feedback since 2015 on any of the many cases we opened at Alberton SAPS. This was after one of our staff members was stabbed after four thugs entered our premises.
We need SAPS to step up and start doing something to reduce the crime and get rid of these criminal elements but it’s a useless fight from us business owners and residents as no one there is interested in doing anything – just another break-in, so what?
We need answers from SAPS as to why the crime is rising without any action from them. Why do we have to suffer these damages and losses when they know who sells drugs and who is responsible for the continuous and increasing break-ins?
We (Fox Security and business owners) had a meeting to discuss security options and what we could do to stop this and various issues were raised.
The one main issue is the fact that Alberton SAPS does not show any interest in assisting with the continuous break-ins and losses to the companies around the informal settlement. Cases opened since 2015 have not been responded to and no feedback from SAPS received at all. SAPS to date have not responded to any of our written correspondence either.
Our insurance company is starting to become very reluctant to pay all these damages – it results in premium hikes every time we claim and is very costly to our company. I’m positive that we are not the only company in our area suffering these losses.
More losses include getting out plumbers to restore a tap and pipe they broke off – the water was streaming out and partly flooded the company next to us. All these costs for a piece of copper pipe and a tap – it’s damn ridiculous!
Fox Security confirmed in the meeting that they have a meeting with SAPS Alberton every Thursday and the informal settlement is discussed in every meeting, yet SAPS does not wish to provide any solution to the problem.
This leads us to believe that members of SAPS are being paid off to ignore anything and everything as far as the informal settlement is involved – there is just no other explanation for their reluctance to regularly raid the settlement and to get rid of these criminal elements.
We are now in the process of again extending and upgrading with more electric fencing, CCTV cameras, beams linked to our armed response, spotlights in the front and back of the premises and, as an absolute last resort, permanent security guards – all of this is a huge expense, but we have no choice.
The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality does not maintain the informal settlement by keeping the grass and reeds short, the place smells like a sewerage farm and it is not a very friendly view for our clients.
We will accept any suggestions and assistance in getting this informal settlement totally removed as we just don’t see any solution to this, especially with no co-operation from SAPS.
Linda de Jong
The RECORD contacted the Alberton SAPS, but no response had been received.
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