Mr Derek Willis (74) of Midvaal says he has been targeted by dog-poisoning criminals since 2014. He has been going through hell since April of that year. He alleges that unresponsive police has only been one of his major problems.
“From now on I will take the law into my own hands as the police and the government are obviously not capable,” he told MooiVaal Media. Read more about his ordeal in his own words:
WEDNESDAY 23-APRIL-2014
Phoned Colonel Slabbert at 11h30 to ask for an appointment to see her to discuss the crime increase in the area and advice in particular on the fact that I seemed to be targeted, five break ins since December. Unfortunately I could hear she was quite sick over the phone and she was in fact on her way to hospital. She asked that I contact Colonel Mundalamo and discuss my problems with him. Acting on her advice I went down to the De Deur police station and asked to see him. We discussed the various problems for about half an hour. He was very helpful and gave me some advice, also telephone numbers of Alan who supposedly ran the community police office just across the road from me, ( I have never seen it open) and another gentleman named Israel. He then took me to another officer just around the corner from his. This was Colonel Thithi, Chief of Detectives. He was also quite helpful and after listening to my problems and learning that in the 30 years I had lived at the same address and receiving multiple SMS’s telling me who would be the investigating officer, not one of these investigating officers had ever contacted me, let alone turned up to investigate anything. He immediately asked me for the last two case numbers and after checking his computer phoned the last investigating officer, constable Mazibuko. The officer was told to go to my address at once, he replied he would be there in twenty minutes. I returned home and waited, constable Mazibuko arrived three hours later and apologized saying he had been in Randburg at the time. This was not a problem and I assured him that I was only glad he could come, not that it made any difference because it was probably three weeks too late and in this one particular case the insurance company had paid out. The three previous ones they had not, I think they thought I was trying to scam them, this is why I am now insisting on a full police investigation. Constable Mazibuko looked around and said in his opinion these break ins were done by someone who knew us. He left after saying I could now lock up the outbuilding and giving me his cellphone number. This was approximately 16h00.
Now let us get to this case number, CAS 289/4/2014. At approximately 16h10 I went into my garage which at that time was unlocked since we were all home and unlocked my workshop door which had been locked all day and in fact locked from approximately 17h00 on Monday 21-April-2014, to put some items on my workbench. I had not even turned the light on and was surprised to feel something move as I put the items on the workbench. I then turned the light on to find that the thing which had moved from a touch by the back of my hand was in fact a welding helmet and welding hammer. These should have been on top of my welding machine which normally stands on the floor beside the workbench. Now looking down I could see that the welding machine was missing. I immediately phoned Constable Mazibuko who returned in about 15 minutes. He looked over the situation and could clearly see where the machine had been due to oil residue and phoned the De Deur police station. He was told to take me down there straight away by the Colonel, however on arrival they were extremely busy so as it was already 17h00 I went straight home and phoned Colonel Mundalamo from there. He promised he would have someone there at 08h00 the next morning. Thursday 24-April-2014. The next morning I waited until 09h00 and then phoned the number I had been given for Alan at the community police office opposite where I live. He said he was part time and could not help much but suggested I phone Israel. This was completely different, I explained the situation to Israel and within two hours I had three police cars and five or six officers including Sergeant Ledimo, Warrant Officer Sehlahlole and Detective Sergeant Matshalela there all asking questions. Statements were made and signed and I was told someone would be sent to take fingerprints. Friday 25-APRIL-2014 15h00 Andrew arrived from Vereeniging to take fingerprints. At my suggestion he took prints from the welding helmet and hammer and a chair that had been moved to assist in some sort of criminal activity. I suggested he climb on the roof to see if he could see loose zinc sheets that may have been entry points and if so get prints there. He told me that would be the job of the investigating officer and they would call him if needed. So we eventually get down to the investigating officer again, I will await that and take it from there. I will then insist that the insurance do a complete investigation also, as they have already told me that if I claim again they will do. Just before Andrew arrived I received an SMS’s, Friday 25-April-2014, 12h00, Constable R.E. Myburgh will investigate your case, awaiting contact as of 20h30 29-Apr-14. Phoned Colonel Thithi at 12h30 on Wednesday 30-April-2014, he said he would ask Constable Myburgh to contact me. A while later Detective Constable Mazibuko arrived, not Constable Myburgh, we spoke for a while but he was already busy with two other cases. I asked when an investigation would start as my insurance company was waiting on this. He said he would call round now and again, this is not his case, if it is could I please be officially informed, I am still waiting for an official investigation to begin 12 days after the incident. Also phoned Alan who supposedly runs the community police office just across the road from me and told him that I had never seen it open. He informed me that they open the first Monday of every month at 19h00. On Monday 5-May-2014 I phoned him again to ask if they would be open tonight, he informed me they would. I walked across the road at 18h55 and waited. Three or four vehicles pulled up close and seeing it was closed, no lights they moved off, one vehicle even came back a second time. I waited until gone 19h15 then gave up and went home. I can virtually see the place from my bedroom window and did not see any change.
Despite all the above I am still at a loss as to where to go from here. I will however continue this report indefinitely regardless of what transpires and continually send it out to whoever I can think of.
As it stands now this will be sent to the SAPS, my insurance company Mutual and Federal, the mayor of Midvaal , Meyerton Ster and whatever local and national media I can contact. I will also add other break ins going back to November of last year.
Regards Derek Willis
17 EAST RD DE DEUR ESTATES, 016-5902080/083-3044512
Continued on 3-June-2014.
This has been a long break due to the fact that I have just come out of Mulbarton Hospital after suffering an acute case of pneumonia, brought on, I am sure by stress from the above situation. I am still feeling very weak but will continue from here.
I again phoned Warrant Officer Israel Sehlahlole and asked if he could come round and talk with me. He agreed to and came round, again he is the only person who has at least tried to do something. I asked him if and when Detective Constable Myburgh would come around and why and what I would like her to investigate. He admitted it was a bit late now but said she should have contacted me. I got the impression from both him and Sergeant Ledimo that investigations virtually never happened. Sergeant Ledimo told me he was tired of being blamed by the public as it was only his job to make out the case report but it was never followed up by investigating officer.
I did get a sort of reply from Retha Fitchat from Meyerton Ster or media 24. It was a copy of an e-mail she sent to 2 of her colleagues presumably asking them to investigate and asking them if they had numbers for the police. This was on 6- May but have heard nothing since, I have however sent them a list of all the police telephone numbers they should need. They are as follows.
Colonel Slabbert. 082-4125766 Station commander
Colonel Mundalamo. 082-5564821
Colonel Thithi. Chief of detectives. Do not have his personel number but he can be contacted on the station number. 016-5901070
Warrant Officer Israel Sehlahlole. 071-6757412
Alan who is supposed to run the local community police forum. 083-7221049
If they did contact anybody I am sure they were told that it was all under control, which would have been bullshit.
Now to get back to the last name on the list, I mentioned before that after phoning Alan I went across the road to the Community Police office but no one turned up. Last night, Monday 2-June-2014, despite still trying to recover from my illness I again crossed the road at 19h30 and waited until 19h45, again no one turned up so obviously the De Deur Community Police Office is a non event.
Lastly for this update let me turn to the insurance situation.
My insurance company to me is rather complicated, it is FNB Direct?/Mutual & Federal?/IWYZE? I really do not know. The person I have always dealt with is Abdul Lateef – Jacobs and he was always quite helpful, why is it the most useful always leave the company. I sent him a copy of this on 6-May-2014 telling him I wished to make another claim but due to past experience with the insurance company, whoever they are, I doubted they would pay it. He had before asked if I minded if they sent out someone to investigate, I replied that I would be delighted as I was sure that with the blight of break-ins they must be sure I was lying to them. However no one was sent out.
He replied the same day saying he was no longer with the company and I should contact Marilyn Theron on Marilyn.theron@iwyze.co.za I forwarded her the e-mail on the same day but so far have received no reply. I am sending her this updated version today and asking for an investigator to be sent out. I was hoping for a police investigation before this but obviously this is out of the question.
That is all for now but this report will continue indefinitely. Copies again to the police, the media, Legalwise, the insurance company and anyone else I can think of. Contact numbers as above.
CONTINUED 13-AUGUST-2014
Yesterday morning at 03h15 my wife was in the bath preparing to go to work, she starts at 04h30 at Mulbarton Hospital. I was just getting out of bed to get her car out of the garage when my car alarm, which was parked next to the stoep, 3 metres from the back door, went off, I went to the kitchen window but could see nothing but the alarm lights flashing. I unlocked the doors and went out. The car passenger door lock had been forced but obviously when the alarm went off whoever had done it made an escape and nothing had been stolen. I managed to relock the door and then took my wife’s car from the garage and stood by until she had safely left. I noticed that none of my two dogs were around but at that time of the morning in the pitch dark I was not prepared to look around in case the criminal was still hiding somewhere. When it got light I went out to look around, found one dog dead but could not find the other. I instantly phoned W. O. Sehlahlole I believe he was still in bed, he told me to phone 071-6757284 which I did, they arrived I think about 5 hours later. While waiting for them I searched for my other dog, a large, old boer bull. I eventually found him, he was alive but not looking too good. Of course they told me they had been here twice before but there was no one home, I will not even bother to justify that with an answer. The case number was CAS 174/8/2014, I received an SMS on 15-Aug to say that W. O. Dlamini would investigate the case, as usual as of 16-Sep-2014 no one has done anything, not that I expected them to. As of today I have 4 of these SMS’s on my cell phone from four different dockets, four different cases and four different investigating officers. Never seen anyone and do not expect to. From now on I will take the law into my own hands as the police and the government are obviously not capable. The second dog died the next day.
This will again be sent to various media, police and legal destinations, not that I expect anything to happen.
Continuation. 15-Oct-14
After the above I again contacted Alan from the police community office across the road and spoke to him. I also sent him a copy of this e-mail. He phoned me later after he had read it and said he was forwarding it to a couple of people in the Midvaal municipality to see if they had any suggestions and also advised me to contact someone named Ivan Parkes who was something to do with the local police forum. A while later I phoned this gentleman who told me he had just received a copy of my e-mail from Alan and after he had read it he would come back to me. He must be a slow reader, that was four weeks ago and I am still waiting. Waiting for him, Alan, the police investigators, ( four dockets, four sms’s about investigating officers) the media. The media told me that the police were very busy and short handed and they had to first deal with cases where more blood was involved. TRANSLATION. They will get round to you when you are dead.
Well after this morning that hopefully will not be.
At 02h45 this morning Wednesday 15-Oct-2014 my wife’s alarm went off, she leaves for work at Mulbarton Hospital at 03h30. She went to the kitchen where she heard a noise from near the door, at first she thought it was the wind but then realized that there was very little wind. She walked over to the door and saw movement, it is the barn door type. Something was moving the bolt on the inside of the door, she bent down to take a closer look, a pair of pliers was inserted between the top and bottom parts forcing them apart, she looked through the gap straight into the eyes of the criminal and screamed. Not quite sure who got the biggest fright, he left the pliers in the door and jumped over the stoep wall and ran. I called the police straight away on 071-6757284, 02h45. They arrived at 03h30 I opened the gate for the with the remote through a window, they came onto the stoep and I shouted through the door for them to use gloves to remove the pliers from the door. One of them took it out with the sleeve of his jacket and I opened the door. The security door padlock was missing, the door open. They walked around and fired shots in the air. Eventually they told me to lock the door and they would patrol the area for a while, which they did. Before they left I told them that someone must come back later as I wanted a docket opened and this time there had better be an investigation with prints taken from the pliers. Later when it was daylight I went out and found the broken padlock in the fountain on the stoep. At 14h45 I phoned W. O. Israel Sehlahlole but only got voicemail, I left a message about docket and investigation. I then phoned 071-6757284 again and spoke to a lady, she said they would come around, that was 14h55, now 17h00, still waiting. From now I will not wait to get murdered, anyone who enters my property without permission I will kill, no matter who they are.
PREVIOUS DOCKETS, NONE HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATED.
CAS 98/1/2014
CAS 14/4/2014
CAS 289/4/2014
CAS 174/8/2014
It is now 10h30 on 16-Oct-14 still no police coming to make out a docket, I have no transport or petrol to go to the police station, most of what I had has been stolen. First the police could not investigate, now they cannot make out dockets. Enough is enough, now is the time to take the law into my own hands, so be it.
This report has been sent to the four officers listed above at the De Deur police station, Alan from the police forum and Retha Fitchat at MEDIA 24, so far the last mentioned has been the only one to reply.
The police have still not opened a docket on the attempted break in of 15-Oct-2-14 as reported above, they obviously have no interest.
I am now sending this to The Star and the Citizen and to the Walkerville Agricultural Society as I believe Mr Ivan Parkes has something to do with this organization. While searching for the e-mail addresses for the two newspapers I noticed that the Star states that it will not publish letters that have been sent to other publications, I wonder why? Never the less I am sending this as I know it is too long to be published, I just want someone to read it and maybe take a little notice. It is now 29-Oct-2014, I’ll bet I hear nothing.
Nothing until today, 21-April-2015, a meeting at my house with Colonel Thithi and Steven from Bake-Serve. We will see what transpires.I told him I would be very willing to join some sort of community patrol but so far nothing has come of that. Steven suggested I get on to his Whatsapp group because he said if I had any problems I just had to send an SOS and twenty people would be at my gate in five minutes. He told me it used very little data and would cost practically nothing. I never sent one SOS but received a great deal of graphics from other people and used over 10Mb in about five days, that was my months supply. I phoned him and he told me he would come round and set my phone correctly, he never turned up. I phoned a few more times and his assistant said he would give Steven a message, have not heard from anybody to this day, 31-Dec-15, After what has happened in the last four months I will be contacting everybody in the new year. Let’s go back to Sunday 9-Sept-15. My wife and myself went to visit our daughter in Centurion on the Friday and returned on the Sunday . When we arrived home the security gate had been broken open and the wooden door completely smashed to matchwood. I think the alarms must have gone off and frightened them away because they only took laptops, cellphones, money, jewelry and some clothes. We contacted the police, case No. CAS/122/09/2015, they came and took statements and eventually fingerprints were taken but only after I had phoned the station several times, it also took the police a week to give me a copy of the report for the insurance. By now we have a new chief of detectives, Colonel Khoza. A detective was assigned to the case, he has never been on the property. After a battle with the insurance, which is now definitely Iwyze, they did pay me out for some of my losses. By now my wife had received her new firearm license to replace the one that had been stolen so we decided that from now on we would defend ourselves at all costs. Although we have a gun safe, which is used when we are not at home, we decided that while we were home we would keep it handy. It was kept beside the bed while we slept and while we were at home during the day. Even this was not a good idea. On Monday 14-Dec-15 I went to visit my neighbor for a couple of hours while my wife watched TV. As was usual when I was not at home my wife closed and bolted the bottom of the stable door into the kitchen, closed and bolted the security gate and put in the padlock but unfortunately did not lock the padlock. When I returned home I noticed that the security gate was not bolted and was open a little, I entered the kitchen and found my wife making a cup of tea so I figured she had been outside to do something. A little later I went to the bedroom to transfer some articles from my car to my bedside table, it was then I noticed the leather holster of the firearm sticking out beneath the drawer. A quick search ascertained that the revolver was missing. I called my wife and asked about the firearm, she came and helped me search. She then noticed that the drawers on her bedside table and dressing table had been opened. It was not until after the police had been notified that she discovered R1000.00 missing from a drawer. Case No. CAS/159/12/2015, Again it took many phone calls to the station to get a forensic officer here, he also complained that he should have been called earlier. All losses aside, this time my wife was very lucky, she must have fallen asleep on the settee while watching TV. The intruder/s must have walked past the living room door while she was asleep, took the gun and money and left without disturbing her. She could have been killed, raped, whatever, she was extremely lucky. Another point, on our initial call to the police station it seems a detective was standing next to the person who took the call and came out quite quickly and took a statement. He left saying others would be here shortly. Some time later other patrol officers arrived to take out a docket and were very surprised to find out a detective had already been there, they said they knew nothing about it. So we made out two reports for this one, detective assigned, I think the same one as for the previous, detective Bulwane, have never seen or heard from him. No chance of insurance claim this time as there was no evidence of forced entry, am getting quite used to this now, I think we have a huge problem in this country but will get to that later, as if you did not know. Ok, a few days later in the afternoon my wife asked me if I had opened the garage today, when I answered in the negative she told me to come and look. My garage roller door has a bolt at each end, each with its own padlock, the one padlock was on the ground broken the other still intact but the bolt pried away from its socket. In this condition the door could only be raised about half a metre then jammed. After unlocking the other padlock and prising the bolt back into position I managed to open the door. At first look I could see nothing missing although my wife did notice what seemed to be an attempt to force the windows of her vehicle, we will probably find some things missing later, already have. Did not even bother to contact the police on this one. Do you notice a tendency of resignation here? OK forward exactly two weeks from the last case. Case No. CAS/285/12/2015, I suppose you do realise that this signifies that this was the 285th crime reported to this station in December, up from 159 two weeks ago. Our pumphouse/storeroom also has stable doors with bolt and padlock plus security door with a security double action lock which is better than the padlocked security gate on our kitchen door, this will be changed to the latter. No matter, during the night of 27th /28th this security gate had been forced open and the padlock on the inner door broken open. Luckily most of the stuff stored there had recently been moved to the garage, not that this will make any difference as we are obviously being targeted. However the wheelbarrow, a lead light and a lawnmower were in there, the lawnmower is no more, also they had attempted to break into my car. The window fittings on both sides had been broken by the door locks but obviously they had been unsuccessful, the alarm was still set, nothing stolen just damage to the vehicle, I never even claimed for this, I must be slipping. Again the police were called at 07h30 that morning, they arrived at 11h30, statements taken, case number given, so far no forensics or detective assigned. Also we had recently obtained a new dog from my brother-in-law, he was fine when he arrived, now he is sick, we are trying medication but he is still not right, poison again? I don’t think it will be long before Retha Fitchat’s mention of blood and gore comes to pass, the only thing that worries me is that if the blood and gore belongs to the criminal element the law as it stands today will defend them and not the victim of crime. This makes me bring up a couple of things, even the police have stated to me that they are scared to draw their firearms as they will be in the wrong, not the criminal. Let us look at the case of Pistorius, the original verdict was changed from culpable homicide to murder, When I first read this I was glad because he had a record of bad firearm behavior and I agreed it should be murder, then I read the appeal court judges reasons. He stated that this had nothing to do with the fact that his girlfriend died. He stated that when Pistorius fired through the door he must have known that he would hit anyone who was in there, that is why it was murder. Basically he is saying that there could have been an armed and dangerous criminal in there and Pistorius had no right to protect himself. There is something wrong in this country, but let’s get back to my problems, although it is every ones problem. After the last episode mentioned and the police had left, we suddenly had another police van at the gate, these were a bit different, at first I thought they were detectives because of the vehicle and plain clothes, black trousers, white shirts. I asked if they were from De Deur and Colonel Khoza, they replied no, that was the detective division, I think they said they were Criminal Investigation department. Is someone at last taking notice? They did not say much and left after five minutes, I should have got their names and asked more questions. They did say that they would have people patrolling the area and looking for suspicious persons. This brings me to my last point for now. I stated earlier that we were being targeted and both friends and the police agree with this. My property is in a location that is very desirable for business, in fact I am at a crossroad and am the only property on the four corners which is not a business. I get offers at least once a month which I turn down, is someone paying criminals to force me out, that will never happen. I state now that I will get a weapon, bear traps, anything to defend myself and any person who defends a criminal I injure will in my mind be an accessory to crime and be dealt with in the same way. Incidentally my wife has a heart problem for which she is on chronic medication, yesterday she had to get medication for stress, how is this going to end, I promise it will be mayhem, one way or the other. Just one point for Iwyze, seven cases documented here, six others not claimed for, you have paid out on two, maybe the media will be interested.
This will continue. 15h00 31-DEC-15
Copies to the police, Legalwise, IWYZE, every media outlet I can get to.
Surprise, surprise, that did not take long. You see the time above, two and a half hours later, 17h30, my wife and I were sat on the back stoep talking while my wife was waiting for dinner to finish cooking. She had just finished talking to our daughter on one of her cellphones, and left them both with mine and my new laptop, which had just been supplied by the insurance, on the living room coffee table. After a while she went inside for some reason, a few minutes later she came out and asked me why I had taken her notebook out of her handbag. I replied that I had not touched it, we both returned to the living room where she discovered both of her cellphones missing. Remembering that it had always been our bedroom that had been the target we rushed there, drawers opened, curtain pulled aside, burglar bars broken and bent outwards. Further search ascertained that one of my cellphones plus the laptop were also missing. These last two had just been replaced by the insurance after the theft 13-Sept-15, case No. CAS 122/09/2015. Police came after three calls, this time it was warrant officer Israel Sehlahlole who arrived, getting to know all these officers, he shook his head in disbelief, we are definitely being targeted. Statements taken, guess what our new case number is, CAS 01/01/2016 yes we are the first crime victims of 2016, something I don’t need. That evening after we had locked up and set the alarms, I took photos of the forced entry before bending back the bars a little and closing the window against them, the police were again at the gate at 22H08. Det. Const. Ngoma and Det. Const. Majuku arrived for what they said was an initial investigation. They looked around, also agreed we were being targeted and left. They said forensics would be here ASAP, we are still waiting, 14h15 1-Jan-16. We were supposed to go to neighbors for a braai today, we will stay at home, we are scared to leave the house. That’s good, Sipho from forensics has just arrived, he was here last time, he also agrees we are being targeted. He is now busy dusting the living room and bedroom for prints. Next thing to see is if the insurance will pay out. Three cell phones, two Vodacom, took me half an hour to blacklist both, one MTN, have been trying to blacklist since 18h00 last night, still no success, they are useless, will never use them again. Will see what happens from here. Managed to get the MTN cell in the store in Meyerton. Also before Christmas I phoned D & D Security on 0114326050 to try and get some security of the holiday period. The lady asked where I lived and then said she would get Johan or somebody to come back to me, I am still waiting. Will phone them again later.
E-mailed this to Media 24 yesterday, Sunday 3-Jan-16, they came back to me straight away, on the Sunday. They said they were shocked and would definitely print it, they will send a reporter to see me. This morning, Monday, went to the De Deur police station to give this to Colonel Khoza and to try and get copies of the last two dockets. He was in a meeting so I gave it to a lady in the computer room and asked if she could help. While I was explaining the situation and the robberies a large policeman walked in the room and said, “that sounds like Mr. Willis”, then walked out. I asked the lady who that was and she told me it was Captain Zwane, I do not remember coming across him before but it seems everybody at the station knows the situation. I wonder how long before I get the copies, cannot claim from insurance until I get them. On Wednesday 6th January I received a phone call from Det. Sgnt. Kruger telling me she was on my case CAS 01/01/2016 and would be contacting me if anything came up. I told her I needed copies of the police docket for the insurance and she said I could pick them up at the police station tomorrow morning. I also asked her about fingerprints saying that forensics had told me they had an ID on one from a previous case, she replied that even if there was an ID it did not mean they could find out who it was. I said I could not believe this, also that Colonel Khoza had told me that they had sent it to Pretoria and were waiting for feedback? We will come back to that later. The next morning I went to the police station with my list of the two dockets I needed copies of. The girl in the computer room recognized me straight away and asked another fellow there to give me the copy that was laying on the desk. He gave it to me and when I showed him the case number of the other docket I needed he introduced himself as Det. Const. Pule and said he was the one in charge of the other case, CAS 285/12/2015 and he would go and get me a copy of that right away. While I was waiting my neighbor walked in and told me that they had been robbed the previous evening, I will not, at this stage, go into what happened to him but it just goes to highlight the problem we have in this area. The detective came back with the copies and also filled out another form which he asked me to sign. I asked him what it was and he said it was just a follow up form for the investigation, I signed it but will come back to that later. On 8-Jan. at 09h40 I received an SMS from the police saying CAS 01/01/2016 would be investigated by Det. Const. Matutoane, on 11-Jan at 09h28 I received an SMS from the police saying that CAS 01/01/2016 would be investigated by Det. Sgnt. Kruger, back to her again, someone doesn’t know what is going on. My neighbor later told me that after they were robbed the fellow from the community patrol, Steven, and the fellow who so far has taken a year to read this report, Ivan Parkes, were at his place within 15 minutes, that is good but what could they do? I have tried to contact them again but with no success. Will try again. On 11- Jan-16 D&D Security finally contacted me and a lady named Alida said she would come and see me tomorrow. She did come and we talked about what could possibly be done, she said she would come back to me tomorrow morning, now 16h00 next day, still waiting. This morning as I was waiting to cross the road a vehicle stopped and I heard my name being called, a lady got out and introduced herself as Det. Sgnt. Kruger, she said she did not know me but her partner recognized me. The investigating officer does not know me but other police in the area do? She said she was investigating the case but did not say if she had come up with anything. She went on to say she had been brought up in the area and understood my concern. She then went on about the finger prints and said that even if they came up with a match it did not mean they could find out who it was. How can this be, when fingerprints are taken surely they are associated with an ID, a name and some address. She had earlier told me on the phone that prints were not kept in the data base permanently. This needs further explanation. She then asked me to sign another form, the same I had signed earlier in the police station for the other case. Now I realize what this is for, the investigating officer needs a signature from you on a form saying that they have informed you that they are still investigating the matter, this is fine but next time I will ask a few more questions first. 16h15 13-Jan-2016.
An afterthought. I am glad I am writing this because it makes me think more. The fingerprint thing, I suppose it is possible that a match may have been made with fingerprints from another crime, but they police have never found who the prints belong to. On the other hand, how much does the legal system extend themselves. Lately, because of the crime in this area I have been talking to other people in the area. I used to be quite friendly with a woman who lived just up the road. She once told me that her and her son were attacked at gunpoint, tied up and the house robbed. She has since died but I was talking to her son the other day and he told me that although this happened a few years back the case is only coming up in court again in March this year. It seems to me that the criminals are getting more protection than the victims. Bring back the death sentence? Who pays for their defence, and if convicted go to prison for a short period where they get to live for free and then get out and continue. I could go on for ever in this mode. This report will continue for a long time, I have much more to say concerning suspects and what happens to them, but some information may involve people who do not want to be involved.
While I was talking to Alida from D & D I asked her about the fact that they had taken over Walkerville Armed Response and about them being found guilty on Carte Blanche, she said she knew nothing about this. I also asked her about the local community patrols, aka, the aforementioned Steven and Ivan Parkes, she said she had never heard of them, all she could tell me was how professional they were!!!!!
She eventually arrived on Monday 18-JAN and contracts were signed and money paid. She told me the technicians would come and install everything today or tomorrow. They did not come Monday or Tuesday but I was phoned and told they would be here on Wednesday. When does the contract start? Also on the previous Friday she had told me that although we did not have the radio yet she would sms me the cellphone number of their local patrol car for the weekend, nothing. I stopped by the local patrol car under the trees in boundary road on the Saturday and was told that the cellphone for that car had been lost but he would tell the nightwatch to call round, nothing. Where is the service in South Africa?
My insurance IWYZE has at last come through with some reparation but still short one cellphone and the burglar bars broken on 31-Dec-15 are still not repaired, that is almost three weeks that we cannot open a window. Where does it all end. This report will continue ad infinitum.
IWYZE phoned and said they could find no one to repair the burglar bars. They agreed I could repair them myself and send them the bill. Did this and sent the invoice, they have repaid this. They also told me they were not going to replace the HTC cellphone but would repay the cost. When I phoned and asked about this I was told it had been paid. Nothing in my account. Phoned again and they told me it had been reversed for some reason but they would transfer it again, nothing. Phoned again and they told me it had been sent to my account on 20-Jan and I should talk to the bank. Bank says there was nothing. IWYZE says they will check with their accounts department, still waiting. D & D seems to be working now, will see if situation improves.
Today received “ Walkerville Views “ read the article “ The New Face of Walkerville”, I agree 100% so am going to send this report to Terry Scott, let’s see if I get a response.
As usual this will be sent to all outlets. Hope Media 24 comes up with something.
CONTINUING THIS ON 28-DECEMBER-2016
Since the last above I have turned 75 and we have been robbed about another four times but I am only going to narrate the last two. I am not going to check back at this moment for the exact dates or police case numbers but I can if necessary. About two months ago my wife and myself woke up about 03h00 in the morning. At that point we were not quite sure what had woken us but we both got up to go to the toilet. At this point I must point out that I had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer so getting up during the night was not an unusual occurrence. Anyway my wife went to the toilet first and I walked out to the kitchen and checked through the window for my car, it was missing. I will not waste time with details, just bottom line. We turned on the outside lights and went to investigate, we have been told this was a stupid thing to do. We found the car behind the garage, all the doors and the hood were open, the battery was gone and most of the wires in the engine compartment and underneath the dash were cut. They had also tried to open the motorized gate but had been unsuccessful, although they had damaged the gate motor. I called the police at 03h15 and again twice more at 15 minute intervals, They eventually arrived 5 hours later at 08h15. I must state here that because of all the robberies we had by now engaged D & D armed response. Unfortunately, as there were no outside sensors, no alarm had gone off, I did however phone them and they arrived 10 minutes later, four and a half hours before the police. They patrolled around for a couple of hours and then went and came back at regular intervals. After the police had been I phoned my insurance, IWYZE. Again I will not go into details, basically they sent someone around for the gate motor, he came, took photos and left. He phoned me once to say he was making a report, I never heard from him again and eventually repaired the gate motor myself. The insurance company sent a truck to take the car away for damage assessment. Eventually they phoned to tell me that the repair would cost R14,500.00 which was more than the car was worth. I was given a choice, they would either pay me out R17,200.00 and keep the car or if I wanted the car back they would pay me out R11,200, I opted for the latter. I have no quarrel with those amounts as I checked the internet and found them to be correct. What I do have a problem with is that only after I was paid out did I discover that I had to pay for having it towed back to me. When I received my car I got to work and repaired it. Within a week I had it fixed, including all the security problems, gear lock, immobilizer and alarm, it cost me R870.00. Obviously they would have done a better job as far as looks and finish were concerned but it was drivable and legal. However that was not the end of problems, A few days later I received a telephone call, and subsequently an e-mail, from IWYZE saying that at the end of the month my policy would be cancelled as I was a bad risk, that was everything, house, contents, vehicles, et. al. what can I say. To be quite honest, if I was a risk assessment officer for an insurance company I would probably have done the same. So who is to blame? Anyway, to continue, I finally managed to get alternative house and content insured with Auto and General, but I failed to get vehicle insurance, not even third party, due to the fact that the second vehicle was a 1975 Volkswagen Beetle, and nobody would insure a vehicle over thirty years old. I was also told that I could not get third party for the Uno I had just repaired unless I had another vehicle insured comprehensive. Subsequently neither vehicle was insured. Now we come to the kicker. This morning, Wednesday, 28-Dec-2016, I awoke at 08h00 to find my newly repaired Uno up on bricks with all four wheels missing. What will come next? It is now 00h30 on Thursday, I will be staying up all night to watch, and probably every night from now on, I have nothing else left to lose but my life. Oh! Just out of interest, on Christmas Eve I received a camera speeding fine in the mail for doing 74mph in a 60mph, on a highway while I was coming back from chemotherapy at the Union Hospital. Today I went to the Midvaal traffic department to tell them that I could not begin to pay the R250.00 fine until I received my SASSA old age grant on New Years day, they told me to come back on Tuesday, I want to go to prison, it is safer, criminals get protection. As I said before, who is to blame. I honestly do not know why I am writing this because no one cares, is it the police, the politicians, the government, basically it is the crime rate which no one can control, everyone is in the wrong except the criminals, from now on it is everyone for themselves.
Tuesday, January 03, 2017, the traffic department dropped my fine to R150.00, will pay it when I have money. I am looking at about R2500.00 minimum for rims and tyres , it will have to stay up on blocks.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
IS THE DA ANY BETTER THAN THE ANC
OR
HONESTY IS NOT THE BEST POLICY
This morning, Tuesday, 10-Jan-2017, I went to the Midvaal Municipality offices to apply for Indigent rates and taxes discount. Previously I had been there to get the paper with the requirements listed on it. I then proceeded to get all those requirements. However when my wife and myself presented ourselves at the correct office this morning the problems started. First the list of requirements had changed. This in itself was not a great problem. The changes were, they now needed the latest municipal statement, I had taken it with me anyway. Copies of ID’s, I had taken the original ID’s so this would not have been a problem. SASSA cards, not asked for in original requirements but again no problem as we both had them with us. Affidavits from SAPS for all household members, original had only asked for a household affidavit. I had an affidavit from SAPS which included both myself and my wife, complete with names, ID’s etc. I was told this was now not acceptable, there must be two separate affidavits. Still not a big problem, if a little inconvenient. Next came the kicker, the honesty thing. I went through the bank statements with the young lady and pointed out monthly incomes. On my statement it showed two monthly deposits, one was an annuity which pays me R852.00 per month, that would have puts us, with the SASSA, R352.00 per month above the stipulated R3500.00 per month, however I had been previously told that it would still allow us a partial discount. The other deposit was a transfer from my wife’s account to mine of R5000.00 which allowed me to pay all debit orders. This was due to the fact that she still had a little left in her account from her pension payout, whereas my account would not have enough to pay debit orders for medical aid, insurance, electricity, municipality etc. The amount she has left may last for another three months, then most of these things will have to be cancelled. I even pointed out to the young lady that my wife’s statement even showed that it came from her account to mine, so there was actually no household income. The young lady was very helpful and said that she fully understood my explanation but unfortunately the people who scrutinized the documentation and gave the authorization would read it as an income into my account. I tried to argue but of course it was not her fault and she said that is just the way it is. She also said that they could only go by the documentation they received and if people lied on those documents there was nothing they could do about it, hence the title of my statement here.
I had previously complained to Midvaal about non refuse removal and sent e-mails to Patricia Hutcheson, or more explicitly to her secretary, carolinem@midvaal.gov.za, but never received a reply so I know it is no good trying that source again. Who do I complain to? I can provide copies of this report if necessary.
Oh yes one last thing. I am not quite sure what rates and taxes are based on but when we bought this place, almost thirty years ago we had almost two acres, now the new highway from Walkerville to De Deur is going through next month which cuts the size of the property in half, does this not change rates and taxes?
