TEKATAKHO – The local police stated that the community is reportedly not opening any cases in the area.
This emerged a week after the community members accused KaBokweni Police Station of not acting against criminal elements and that there was no police visibility in the area.
The spokesperson of the local police, Capt Shirley Ngomane told Mpumalanga News they revisited their crime records and discovered that only two cases from this area had been opened. The community seems reluctant to act against the Nyaope Boys who are terrorising them.
“It’s not true that we are not doing justice to the community. We discovered people don’t report the cases, which is a problem. It does not matter how big or small the crime, we treat every incident as important, because the nyaope gang can start with petty crime and go bigger.
“We are appealing to residents to open cases so that we can be aware of such crimes before it gets out of control,” said Ngomane.
She said reporting a crime incident played a crucial role in terms of assisting police to focus more on the trouble spots.
“We were having serious problems of house break-in’s and business robberies at Clau-Clau, Mafambisa and so far it is decreasing because community members were reporting them. In so doing, we were able to put in place new measures to fight such crime,” she added, saying that the station would conduct campaigns to educate people about the importance of opening a case.
Over the past few weeks Mpumalanga News had received numerous complaints about the Nyaope Boys who allegedly attack people with knives and confiscate their valuable items such as handbags, cellphones and jewellery.
They are targeting the people at public drop-off stations, especially at the main station (T-Junction).