It’s DAM shameful

POLOKWANE – Flora Park dam is a nest of thievery and drug lords, which the city’s police are seemingly not gaining proper control over.

On Saturday evening, a 17-year-boy was treated at a local hospital after suffering a broken rib when he was robbed of his cell phone and watch.

Michael Castelyn spent some time with friends at the dam, which is supposed to be a recreational spot. While they were sitting on a bench, a man accosted him, Castelyn said.

“A man walked up to us and asked me for the time. As I looked at my watch he grabbed me and starting hitting me.”

At this point, one of his friends went in search of help.

“The man ordered me to take off my watch and hand over my wallet and cell phone.

“I told him I did not have cash on me and he started searching my pockets.”

Castelyn’s attacker eventually found a cell phone.

“He then hit me again and when I fell he kicked me and left me lying on the ground,” Castelyn said.

His friend in the meantime returned, accompanied by a local resident, Jaco Benade, who took Castelyn to the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital for treatment.

Benade, who lives in nearby Erasmus Street, said residents in the area are all too familiar with the unsavoury incidents at the dam that have become an almost weekly occurrence.

“This is not the first time such an incident occurred, and it will certainly not be the last. Locals here know very well about the things that take place at this dam.”

Benade said they have written to the municipality for assistance in safekeeping the area on numerous occasions.

They are yet to receive a response, he said.

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Jantjie Hlodiwane, who used to be a caretaker and cleaner at the park’s ablution facilities for over five years, confirmed locals’ sentiments.

“Children come here and pay the security guards to get into the toilets at night and do things they shouldn’t be doing. I have seen children stab children with knives here, beat each other up and use drugs. I stayed out of the way because I landed in deep trouble once I reported or talked about it.”

Asked why this was the case, Hlodiwane said at the time he had a very real fear of retribution: “I have been beaten up before by those on whom I told”.

“Once, a man even returned and defacated on the floor, afterwards forcing me to clean up after him. It is only now, since I have left that job, that I am able to speak openly”.

That the area is a hot spot for crime cannot be contested.

In October a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death after two rival groups argued over a branded hand glove. When the police responded to the incident, they also performed a stop-and-search exercise, during which two more teenagers were arrested for theft.

Barely a week later, the police arrested three drug users in the act of sniffing lines of cocaine from one of their iPads.

Information they retrieved from the accused led police to a house in Ster Park where the police arrested two Nigerian nationals, aged 31 and 37 years old, and a 41-year-old woman from KwaZulu Natal after discovering some 60 packets of illegal substances

including cocaine and tik, as well as a large amount of cash in the house.

Asked for comment, municipal spokesperson Matshidiso Mothapo said they were currently cleaning up the area around the dam by cutting the grass.

Furthermore, there is no proactive plan to keep the area safe, except police patrolling and heightened visibility.

According to police spokesperson capt. Ntobeng Phala, they have prioritised the dam since the murder last year.

He urged residents to move around in groups and to stay away from densely bushed areas as these, he said, make good hiding places for criminals.

“Parents must know where their children are at all times and all suspicious people must be reported to the nearest police station.”

Mothapo said this weekend’s incident was not reported.

He urged residents to report incidents so the police could follow up.