Photos: Truck crashes through residential wall
Resident finds himself in 'demarcation twilight zone'.
A resident of Roodekrans is at his wits’ end after yet another incident left him without police assistance. He appears to live in a demarcation twilight zone.
The authorities failed to come out to Riaan van der Nest’s smallholding on Doreen Road on Saturday 27 August, because of the dubious location of his residence – the property lies on the border between Roodekrans and Aanwins Agricultural Holdings.
At about 6pm on Saturday, a truck belonging to his neighbour, who lives on the ridge above him, ploughed through Van der Nest’s property wall. It is uncertain what caused the accident. Van der Nest contacted his neighbourhood watch, the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch (RNW), who in turn contacted both the Police and the Metro Police. Neither authority responded to the call-out.
Van der Nest said he was very relieved that his daughters, aged four and five, were not playing in the back yard when the accident happened.
According to Van der Nest, the failure of the authorities to respond to the call-out is a common problem which is more far-reaching than just this one incident. Whenever he wants to report a crime to the police, the Roodepoort Police Station refers him to the Honeydew Police Station, and vice versa. On Sunday morning, he went to the Roodepoort Police Station to report the incident, but they referred him to the Honeydew Police Station – yet again. Colonel
Colonel André Laing of the Roodepoort Police, and Andreas Oberlecner of the RNW confirmed that the area falls under the Honeydew Police’s jurisdiction, even though it is part of Roodekrans. The Roodepoort Police’s jurisdiction ends at the top of the ridge, where CR Swart Road ends in a T-junction with Doreen Road.
The problem does not end there, however. Van der Nest said he also has trouble reporting municipal issues to the councillor for the ward, DA councillor Suzanne Clark. He says he gets the idea that Clarke is reluctant to get involved in this part of the ward, precisely because it lies on the border of the next ward.
Neither the Honeydew Police Station or Clarke could be reached for comment.
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