East hostel dwellers call on the police to ‘raid’ hostel blocks
“Residents even asked the Tshwane metro police to send in the drug unit to assist but nothing has been ever since.”
Hostel dwellers in Mamelodi have called on the police to do their job and stop taking bribes.
The hostel dwellers said the drug problem would never end because the police were taking bribes instead of doing their job.
“Mamelodi police are not helping us as hostel dwellers to fight crime in the hostel blocks, especially when approaching drug addicts in the hostel blocks,” said a concerned Mamelodi Hostel resident who wished not to be named.
“We are living in fear because of the drug addicts and drug lords who have taken over the hostel blocks.”
“We are robbed on daily basis and to make matters worse the police patrolling in the area are taking bribes from the drug dealers.”
“The only way to solve our problem is to deploy police officers from other stations outside Gauteng or Pretoria to come and raid the hostel’s blocks.”
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The hostel dwellers said they had been complaining about the drug addicts who had invaded the hostel for almost three years but the police were doing nothing.
“When the problem started we are tried to take the law into our hands but the police said this was against the law but today they are taking bribe money from the drug addicts.”
Since the addicts invaded the hostel there had been a lot of crime – prostitution, robberies and lots of burglaries – especially at the Kingsley hostel in Block D and the Mamelodi hostel in Block Y near Sun Valley.
Another resident said they had tried to reason with the police to get them to bring order to the hostel in vain.
“Residents even asked the Tshwane metro police to send in the drug unit to assist but nothing has been ever since.”
“It is not safe to walk alone around the hostel because… there are no lights at the hostels and the residents are robbed almost every day.”
ALSO READ: Communities join drug fight
“All they do is empty promises and at some point, they promised to send the police K9 unit to search the hostel blocks but we are still waiting up to date,” the residents said.
“Another big problem at the hostel blocks there is a lot of school children walking around the hostels. the hostel blocks actually is a hideout for anyone who is doing drugs and the majority of the children are no longer going to school,” he said.
Mamelodi police spokesperson Captain Johannes Maheso said the police had unannounced patrols around the hostel weekly.
He advised the dwellers to take the registration number of the police vehicle when they spotted the occupants taking bribes, the time this happened and bring the information to the police.
ALSO READ: Four school kids busted for drugs in the east
Maheso said the community needed to work together with the police to combat crime
The metro had yet to comment at the time of going to print.
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