Criminals terrorise neighbourhoods

Residents living near the nature reserves in the east of the city expressed their fear and anger over rampant crime that bordered on terrorism.

Stephané Bothma

May 17, 2016

tshwane.gov.za

Living in constant fear and in conditions resembling a war zone were how residents adjacent to some nature reserves described their daily lives.

“It is no longer mere criminality, it is terrorism,” said a Kloofsig resident, who had the fence around his property cut 112 times during the past few years.

More than 400 residents attended a meeting last week, in which crime, mainly in the Groenkloof nature reserve, was discussed with officials of the Tshwane metro.

Packing the Groenkloof NG Church to the rafters, residents vented their anger and fears, claiming they were desperate and without any solutions.

While many addressed the rampant crime inside the reserves, where several people had been robbed and attacked in the past months, others used the opportunity to discuss crime in the residential areas around the reserves.

“The police do absolutely nothing. They have stopped responding to our calls. Our dogs are poisoned and housebreaking, thefts and robbery are the order of the day,” said the resident.

Those who expressed their anger to a panel, chaired by Tshwane mayoral committee member Subesh Pillay, said all the crimes in the areas adjoining the Groenkloof and Klapperkop reserves were committed by criminals cutting through the reserve fence.

“The electric fence is not being maintained and at the section next to my home, the fence has not been working for the past eight months,” said an angry resident.

Another said his home was burgled, robbed and had his property stolen 11 times in a few months. I am no longer insurable and have absolute nothing left that they [thieves] can steal,” he told the meeting, which at times got rowdy and very emotional.

Residents accused reserve management of providing a safe haven for the criminals by not policing the area and not acting against criminals who used the stormwater pipe system as a hiding spot.

They claim nature reserve staff were fully aware of all the illegal entry and exit points used by the criminals through the fence but they did nothing to prevent the breaches.

In Herbert Baker Street, a resident, described the fence around the Groenkloof reserve as a “tin-pot” fence that would fall over if he blew hard enough.

“I have stopped calling the police. I am 82 years old and do not have that long to wait,” he said.

Pillay told the meeting their complaints and concerns were being taken seriously by the council and the fence around the Groenkloof reserve would be in working order within a week after the meeting.

Police General André Wiese, who also attended the meeting that saw the formation of a security cluster to deal with crime in the reserve, asked residents who had complained about the service they had received from the police to report the incidents to his senior staff.