A local councillor has urged residents and service providers to use social media to help in curbing unrelenting crime in Alexandra.
This was said by Ward 116 councillor Adolph Marema in the wake of a recent disappearance of a 14-year-old girl who was found two weeks later with the help of social media. The girl from 17th Avenue, whose phone was switched off during the disappearance, is now with her father in Limpopo.
Marema commended residents who alerted him of the whereabouts of the girl through social media, hours after he announced her disappearance on the ward’s WhatsApp group. “The link created per street for reporting on service delivery issues proved its worth.
“Residents should use it more often to communicate on other pressing issues including crime,” Marema said. “We can dent unrelenting crime if we reported it on time through this medium.”
He said the girl was spotted midday, hours after the announcement on the WhatsApp group, at the intersection of 3rd and Alfred Nzo avenues. “She and another girl were in the company of older men, had a beer bottle and appeared not to have bathed for days,” Marema.
She was taken then to police officers and her mother who were looking for her. “Seemingly the mother withdrew the case and the father took the child away possibly from worry about her neglect and safety.”
Marema said that while the girl seemed to have been with the men voluntarily, it’s concerning as she is a minor. “She also missed school and examinations and was at risk to all sorts of crimes besetting the township.”
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