Pimville residents engage Cele on crime issues

Residents of Pimville expressed their disappointment in the government and the police for failing to protect them against crime. They were speaking directly to the Police Minister, Beki Cele during the Crime Prevention Ministerial Imbizo at the Pimville Community Hall on Thursday last week.

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The Ministerial Imbizo was called following an outcry from residents about criminal activities which have become rife in the area including cable theft. In an incident that shook the community last month, Kgomotso Diale was shot and killed when he and other residents were at Chicken Farm informal settlement to discuss issues of cable theft.

Residents are accusing undocumented foreign nationals of being behind the cable theft syndicate in the area.

“The issue of cable theft is not new. The police and Eskom know about it but they have failed to solve it. We have this meeting today because of cable theft and the failure of the police and Eskom. At the end, people decided to go to Chicken Farm to try and talk about this and they got killed,” said one resident to Minister Cele.

Almost every week, Pimville experiences unplanned blackouts because of cable theft. Pimville community leader, Thabang Moloi said every day for the past three years, he has been dealing with the issue of cable theft in Pimville.

He also asked where was Cele and other government officials when residents were getting shot at with assault rifles at Chicken Farm.

“Every day I have to tell the people not to go to the streets to protest when there is an outage because the issue is cable theft,” said an emotional Moloi. “We don’t want you but we want Eskom because this issue started because of cable theft. You have failed to identify the two most important things in life, which are water and electricity.”

Moloi is one of the residents who survived the shooting at Chicken Farm.

Nancefield Hostel Induna, Thisha Shange also pledged his support to the community of Pimville and said the hostel is also affected by cable theft. Shange said as hostel dwellers they are willing to work together with Pimvlle residents to fight crime.

Minister Cele responded to the resident by saying that as government they take their grievances serious and will take action. “At no stage where we say communities can’t rise and defend themselves. At no stage do we say communities can’t come together and work for their safety and comfort. But at no stage communities should do that outside the law,” said the minister adding that all those who break the law will be arrested. Cele also appealed to residents to come forward with the names if corrupt police officers so he can deal with them.

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