“We really feel unsafe”
Women on Impala Drive in Carletonville are seemingly being targeted by violent criminals.
The Herald reported last week that two sisters in their 20s were raped by three men during a house robbery on this street on 11 February. This incident happened at approximately 19:30. The attackers also took their cell phones, electrical equipment and food from their fridge.
During the past week, another similar incident occurred on the same street.
According to Ms Nokuthula Nyamani, the attackers struck a couple renting the garage of the mine house where she and her husband live during load shedding at approximately 21:45 on 15 February.
“It was very dark. My sister was in our living room when she suddenly heard a gunshot,” she says.
After checking that everything was safe, they ran outside to see and discovered with shock that two men had attacked the tenant and her husband. The thugs, who, according to the police, were Sotho-speaking, overpowered and assaulted the couple and tied their hands with wire. They then stole whatever they could find and also took food again. They also raped the woman.
Nyamani immediately phoned the police, who arrived within 10 minutes.
“The door to the garage was slightly open as the couple had been sitting with a candle because of the load shedding. The criminals probably saw this in the dark and stormed through the gate. We did not hear anything. If we did, we could have called the police, and they could have caught them. On the other side, my sister could have opened the door, and they could have stormed into our house, too,” she says.
The couple was so traumatised that they moved out shortly after the incident.
Nyamani told the Herald she and other women in the area feel very unsafe since the attacks. They are especially worried that the criminals might be lurking around in the long grass and bushes in the open yards on this street and at the overgrown park on Kudu Street, just behind Impala Drive.
“Maybe they observe the houses from there.”
On Tuesday, the Herald asked the Merafong City Local Municipality when the long grass would be cut.
“The municipality’s parks section was unable to mow the grass because of the recent, intense rain. Parks is currently engaged in a programme to cut the grass. The issue will be handled accordingly,” the municipal spokesperson responded.
