New crime happening in our community

21 June 2020
Ikemeleng Kroondal
Steven Ramokhula

Ikemeleng is a mining community in Kroondal outside of Rustenburg in the North West Province.

Over the years Ikemeleng has been experiencing high rate of crime due to unemployment and poverty. Crimes ranged from house robbery, armed robbery, drug dealing and others.

Yesterday evening a neighbour of mine experienced another type of crime. Her entire laundry was stolen from the washing line. Her winter clothes and those of her siblings we stolen around 18:45 in the evening according to her statement. She is the fourth victim of laundry that is taken from the washing line in a period of six weeks.

This type of crime is new in our community. We have never experienced a crime like this in the past. People used to leave their laundry the whole night on the washing line fearing nothing. Now people are scared to leave their laundry unattended for a long time. People in the community are starting to point finger on the drug addicts. Specifically the nyaope addicts. My fear is that, if nothing is done about it, some of the drug addicts will be a victim of community mob justice