Police have left us at mercy of criminals, say Eastern Cape villagers

Residents of Ntshingeni village in Cofimvaba claim they have been left to fend for themselves against criminals who terrorise them day and night.

And they blame the police for failing to root out the criminal elements, despite having been made aware of residents’ plight a long time ago.

Speaking to DispatchLIVE on Monday, Busisiwe Gasa said most of the victims were elderly people who lived alone.

“This year alone there have been two deaths. About three weeks ago, an elderly woman was raped and in the same week we had an elderly man who was found hacked to death in his home,” she said.

She said another elderly woman was taken to hospital after she was raped inside her house on Sunday.

Gasa said what was concerning was that, though the cases were reported to the police, there seemed to be no progress in terms of arrests.

The nearest police station, Bridge Camp, is about 7km from the village, but Gasa said it was under-resourced.

She claimed that sometimes callers could not get through to the station due to network problems; other times there were no vans to send out to crime scenes.

When contacted on Monday, police spokesperson Captain Namhla Mdleleni declined to comment and referred queries to the provincial SAPS office.

DispatchLIVE sent questions to the provincial headquarters but there was no response at the time of writing.

Siphiwo Smayile said while transporting elderly people to pension pay points on Monday, one of his passengers told him she had been accosted by an intruder in her home on Sunday night.

The woman managed to overpower her assailant, who then fled, Smayile said.

“Some of these criminals were members of gangs in other cities and their parents brought them back home. Now they have revived their criminal activities and have become a huge problem for us innocent people.”

A third villager, who spoke on condition of anonymity as his mother lived alone and he feared for her safety, confirmed several elderly women in the village had fallen victim to rapists and killers.

He claimed one woman was raped when she had gone out to draw water from the communal tap early one morning while it was still dark.

Gasa said villagers would meet with bosses at the Bridge Camp police station on Thursday to find out what progress had been made with regard to crimes reported in the area.

The delegation will  also hand over a petition demanding that a mobile police station be placed closer to Ntshingeni village.

Villagers have also started a WhatsApp group to come up with measures to fight crime in the community.

Gasa said so far the group had 235 members.