MUST READ: George Goch hostel residents accuse police officers of stealing their valuables

The residents of George Goch hostel, who were armed with spears and knobkerries, vowed to bring the City of Johannesburg to a standstill if the top brass of the South African Police Service does not act against police officers they accuse of ‘looting our valuables’ during a recent raid.

The police have been accused of taking advantage of the raid at the hostel to ‘help themselves’ to residents’ personal valuables and the residents are demanding the return of the items.

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Hostel residents had wanted to march to the Jeppe Police Station but were stopped in their tracks by the police and asked to send a delegation of indunas to hold a meeting with the station management team.

The police had been called to the meeting by the indunas who had feared chaos might erupt if the angry crowd of hostel residents was allowed to march to the station.

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“We’re prepared to march to the police station to assert our rights and to demand the return of the items illegally taken from our rooms by the police during the raid. Those items were in no way connected to the cash-in-transit heist and we cannot all be painted with the same brush just because there may be a few rotten eggs among ourselves,” said induna Mbongeleni Sibiya.

“The law must deal with the rotten eggs but the law-abiding citizens must equally be left alone to live peacefully as they are entitled to own property and keep valuable items in their rooms.”

This was after a police raid of their hostel in search of suspects who had robbed two cash-in-transit vehicles in Boksburg on 16 May, and some of the robbers allegedly drove to the hostel.

Speaking at a mass meeting, the hostel’s induna Skhuphe Makhathini accused the police of stealing the valuables from their rooms while the residents were being paraded on the grounds of the hostel.

“Our brothers were taken out of their rooms by thieves who came here not to arrest criminals but to steal. We are not saying the police should not be allowed to do their work, but we want to know why, in the process, they then took advantage and stole from us,” Makhathini said.

The 66-year-old, Queue Mavundla, claimed to have lost cash, important document and his son’s identity book during the raid. “I lost my son’s ID, R2 300 and papers of my vehicle during the raid. I went to Jeppe Police Station to report the matter and a female officer promised to call me later with my case number,” Mavundla said. By the time of going to press, Mavundla said she had not done so.

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Colonel Mathipela Hlakotsa of Jeppe police confirmed during the meeting with the residents at the hostel that two of five arrested suspects were residents of George Goch hostel. He then promised to return with answers to the indunas’ questions and claims made by the hostel residents on 23 May, once they had briefed their seniors.

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Hlakotsa said they will convene a follow-up meeting with the indunas, but by the time of going to press, Sibiya said no such meeting had taken place. He added that if the police do not honour their promise of a meeting, a delegation of indunas would be sent to the station to meet the top brass to iron out the matter.