Westenburg resident lambastes police after raid on her home

POLOKWANE – A family from Westenburg whose house is said to previously have been rented out to a druglord, says local police recently “stormed into their house, turning the place upside down”.

The elder and caretaker of the children in that home – one of them physically disabled – said officers “banged on the door calling for Marshall and asking where the drugs are”.

“They forced us to lie on the floor, although it was clear that my granddaughter and I could not, due to impairments,” Rachel Whitehead related.

She was visibly aggrieved when explaining her family’s ordeal to the Capricorn district’s police commissioner, Maj Gen Lesiba Mashilo, Westenburg police commander, Lt. Col Maimele Pilusa and local Community Policing Forum (CPF) executive member, Mabotse Mothiba during another safety and security meeting held last Tuesday.

The meeting was meant to provide feedback about grievances the community brought to the police’s attention during a meeting on May 13, that included among other complaints, a lack of police visibility and slow response times.

Some who were present and had in recent weeks experienced domestic disputes did not receive swift interventions when they called for the local police, they said, with one alleged having waited for four hours “after the damage was done”.

Although Whitehead admitted the police were only doing their job, it was “how the job was done” which concerned her, leaving her and the family traumatised.

Mashilo and area municipal councillor, Joosuf Pemma agreed that the raid was necessary despite also acknowledging that how it was conducted was flawed.

Pemma remarked that the movement and housing of drugs in the area was “let to slide for far too long”.

After the operation was concluded at Whithead’s home, no drugs were found on the premises, the police confirmed during the meeting.