ATM card thief victim barred from opening case

The cousin of an ATM card theft victim who had his SASSA card stolen, is furious with the police after they refused to open a case. Bonbingiseni Luthuli, who is his 30s and lives in Umgababa, had his card stolen in Warner Beach at about 6am on Friday, 1 February.

Dudu Hlope, Luthuli’s cousin said he doesn’t drive, so she fetched him from his Umgababa home to open a case at Toti police station on Saturday, 2 February. “The police man told us he cannot open a case, as the person with the keys would only be back on Monday. I was furious. How can they say they cannot open a case just because someone is not at work? I don’t know what the keys were for.”

Luthuli returned on his own on Monday morning, 4 February but again no case was opened. He could not tell the SUN why he was turned away again. Snodey, on hearing about Luthuli’s lack of progress in opening a case, fetched and took him to the station where, finally a case was opened.

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Snodey, who drove to Umgababa twice to ensure a case was opened, said it was an inconvenience. “This is not the first time it has happened, it’s often. There are a few policemen at Toti station who are not doing their jobs. Most are fantastic and go out of their way to assist us, but there are some bad apples who need to be weeded out. Fortunately in this case, the magistrate and prosecutor said there was a strong enough case without the complainant’s statement to hold the suspect.”

Amanzimtoti SAPS communications officer, Captain Charlene van der Spuy said, in response to the SUN’s queries regarding why the police refused to open a case: “I cannot determine whether the SASSA card was stolen and the same card used to withdraw the money.”

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