‘We want to stop drug dealers, not kill anyone’
Review recently spoke to a source involved with the cleanup operation of the city’s streets about the recent assaults alleged to have resulted from this operation.
POLOKWANE – The source, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Review this all started a week ago when taxi owners and their drivers from one of the taxi ranks in the city decided they have had enough of drug dealers harassing their clients and trying to sell them drugs. They began asking around the rank for information on where to find the drug dealers and put a stop to their reign of terror.
“Some of the people who use taxi’s are avoiding certain taxi ranks due to the prevalence of drug dealers harassing them which leads to them using another rank and the taxi owners and drivers losing their source of income. There are individuals who have taken it upon themselves to take matters further than simply asking where to find the drug dealers. They have been implicated in various assaults and other acts of violence which should not be associated with the initial idea of our cleanup operation,” the source explained.
In a recent incident a man was grabbed by a mob in Biccard Street and taken down town, undressed and doused in petrol because the mob wanted information about drug dealers and users in the city. [Read more in this week’s Review Weekend]
This incident, along with an incident reported in Review last week where two young men were assaulted while looking for employment in the city’s Central Business District (CBD) were assaulted by a mob who mistook them for ‘nyaope boys’, was a result of taxi owners and their drivers wanting to cleanup the taxi rank in Oos Street.
The source said these attacks are not what the cleanup operation is all about. “We do not want to kill people, we only want to clean up the streets. The people responsible for the assaults are not a part of our operation, they have taken matters into their own hands,” the source said.
This ‘cleanup operation’ spilled over to various taxi ranks and other areas in the city pointed out by the drug dealers and buyers caught and interrogated by drivers in the city.
Provincial Police Spokesperson, Lt Col Moatshe Ngoepe, said police have heard reports of people being assaulted but so far no cases have been opened.
“Without a case being opened, we cannot follow up the incident,” he said. Ngoepe added that once a case had been opened, police will not hesitate to investigate and arrest the people involved in these activities.
“We will arrest them, regardless of what they want to accomplish. If they break the law they will be be brought to book, vigilantes will not be tolerated in Limpopo,” Ngoepe said.
