Population explosion

Christinah Mogobye

The increase in population due to the migration of mine employees and work seekers creates an increase in crime. Last Saturday in the early hours, another life was taken. A young man went to check on his girlfriend at Steve Tavern in our neighboring village called Mokgalwaneng when he became a victim of crime and he met his untimely death. Robbers were busy robbing the tavern owner and the patrons and it was his unlucky day as he witnessed the incident and later became a victim of that incident when he was stabbed to death.

According to Mokgalwaneng news, the robbers demanded phones and he refused to hand over his as he was not aware there was a robbery in progress, they began to stab him in the heart where he sustained serious injuries which resulted in his untimely death. The Mokgalwaneng Community called upon all neighboring villages to come and make a petition for the robbers to be chased out of the village as they are known for terrorizing the villagers.

This is not the first incident, even last month another brutal killing took place in the very same village, robbers attacked the tavern owner and the patrons. These cases are reported to Mogwase police station but there is no change. In our villages cops don’t patrol even after having countless cases that involve death they never patrol.

With section 189 our problems seem to be far from over because people do as they please, they kill people ruthlessly for their hard-earned possessions and this puts the community in fear. The rate of crime is increasing every day and the Community Policing Forum and the ward Councillors are working hard to reduce the crime, the police are not cooperative, and without their
intervention, there won’t be any solution except for communities to take the land into their own hands
and end up landing in jail as well.

There is no unity between cops and policing forums and such incidents could have been avoided a long time ago. We are having another Community meeting on the 28th of November 2024. I will also address this matter and urge the counselor to come up with an action plan to address the problem of these two parties.