Amalinda homes a soft touch for thieves
CRIMINALS seem to have found a soft target in Amalinda’s Circle Road in East London where they terrorise households in broad daylight, stealing furniture, electronic appliances and even mattresses.
Residents say the suburb needs its own police station instead of being serviced by the Cambridge police station.
They claim a farm located behind their houses is being used as a hiding place by criminals as it is not fenced.
A single mother of two, Zoliswa Dondolo, experienced three breakins last year with the last incident on December 16.
Criminals took three flat-screen plasma television sets and a host of other household goods amounting to thousands of rands.
“More than R100 000 worth of household goods including laptops, three plasma televisions and other household stuff were stolen,” said Dondolo.
She said the increase in crime started two years ago after a farmer moved out of the farm bordering their houses.
In Circle Road, more than five houses have reported break-ins to the police recently.
“The farm behind us was bought by a business person who has failed to fence it. Now criminals hide inside the farm premises and monitor our movements daily before they break into our houses. We are losing valuables,” said Dondolo.
Dondolo said as a result of the increase in crime, parents had stopped sending their children to local shops as they get mugged.
Her neighbour, Nonceba Didiza, said the residents had resorted to taking the law into their own hands.
“We have no choice, we can’t really watch our place being terrorised by thugs while police do not intervene,” said Didiza.
They blame police from Cambridge police station, saying they are only visible in their area when a crime has been committed.
“They will be here for two days then they are gone. Some will come and introduce themselves as case investigators and the next thing you will receive a letter from the same officer, telling you that the docket has been closed.”
They said police were too slow to respond to crime alerts.
But the station’s spokesman, Captain Mluleki Mbi, said police were doing all they could to help.
“The crisis there is not alarming but a concern. Remember Amalinda is a huge area and housebreaking is a problem. We have not neglected the people of Circle Road,” said Mbi.
Another resident, Zodwa Msindwana, said not a single burglary case had been solved by police.
“I’ve been a victim of housebreaking here and not a single case has been solved by the Cambridge police.”
Mbi said the area had a police sector manager who was actively involved with the community.
“To prove that we are involved with the community, there are community patrols that are available to help curb this scourge of crime.”
A member of the Community Policing Forum for Amalinda area confirmed that there were complaints of crime from residents in the area.
“The police are always around to curb crime. Any crime we report it to the police and they act.” —