Duncan Village workshop targeted
Thieves have targeted a workshop that helps people with disabilities in East London, stripping it of eight burglar gates, three stoves, pots, sinks, kettles, a fridge, four industrial sewing machines, electric cables and water pipes in two years.
As a result, Sophila Protective Workshop People with Disabilities in Duncan Village does not have water to drink and they cannot use the toilet because it is flooded.
Only sewing machine stands which cannot be moved have not been stolen.
The workshop, which is funded by the department of social development, has resorted to using money allocated for stationery, material and nutrition to install an alarm system in an attempt to prevent more burglaries.
The centre, which has 20 beneficiaries, now cannot carry out its functions – or make money teaching sewing or music to the able-bodied public – without equipment.
The frustrated centre manager, Penelope Magopeni, who was diagnosed with polio, said she wished the police could work harder to find the criminals who continuously broke into the workshop.
“They promised us that people would come and take fingerprints, we waited and they never arrived to this day.
“I wish they would take this seriously because we are responding to former president Thabo Mbeki’s call of vuk’uzenzele [getting up and doing things for yourselves], so that we can keep busy and have money at the same time but these people come and steal from us,” she said.
Magopen said they decided to use the money social development gave them for nutrition to install an alarm system.
“We don’t eat [at the workshop] and eat at home, we can’t even hire someone to be a security guard because we will be putting their lives in danger,” she said.
Siphe Mditshane, a music teacher at the centre, can no longer continue with his music lessons because his R15,000 keyboard was not returned by someone who had pretended to hire it.
“When I joined the centre in 2016 I felt welcomed, I was treated very well and now this is happening.
“It is very sad, none of this sits well with me because these people are not people from East London, they are from around and I don’t understand why they are doing this because it is not like we are making millions from this,” Mditshane said.
Magopeni said when there was a break-in, they always reported cases to the Duncan Village police, but no one had ever been arrested.
“We appeal to the community to help us in guarding our centre and to come forward if they have any information because we also help them when they bring in their items for altering and shoe repairs,” she said.
East London police spokesperson Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala said a case had been opened, but had since been closed.
She said the case would now be recovered from the police archives.
However, she did not say whether or not the case would be reopened.
We appeal to the community to help us in guarding our centre and to come forward if they have any information