The gambling den that used to be a hideout for criminal activities like drug trafficking, prostitution, violent crime like hijacking, robbery and rape on the outskirts of Zeerust was debushed in a Crime Prevention Through Environment Design (CPTED) Letsema/Volunteerism Campaign on Tuesday. The campaign led by Crime Prevention Unit in the North West Department of Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison involved over a hundred volunteers including the aged.
Scores of angry gamblers, mostly women who used the bush to hide their nefarious activities watched from a distanced as their hideout was bulldozed and passed sarcastic remarks to the volunteers. The women gamblers, some with infants on their backs reportedly play cards in the thicket using child support grant monies throughout the day, into the night and until the early hours of the morning.
The aged who participated in the campaign included members of Gogo Getters, a women pensioners organisation that cares for orphaned, neglected and abused children. Mary Kgosiemang (74), from the Ikageleng Township said that their organisation has dealt with cases of learners who bunked school in the thicket.
An overjoyed Sanvlaagte resident who passed through the debushing campaign site , Shadi Dube (59) said that taking a short cutfrom Sanvlaagte to Zeerust town through the overgrown vegetation along the pathway was dangerous as residents, particularly women risked being raped or ambushed to be robbed of their cellphones and groceries.
Dube said that many residents from Sanvlaagte and Ikageleng township andhad like herself opted to use taxis and the round-about instead of walking through the bush.
Seventy four year- old local businessman and property developer, Essop Bata gave a thumps-up to the debushingand grass cutting community mobilisation campaign as “the right blow to reduce opportunities for crime in our neighbourhood”.
Handbag snatchers and shop lifters had reportedly disappeared on pursuit into the formerly dense and shoulder high bush. Abandoned ladies shoes found in the thicket before it was debushed bore testimony as to why six attempted rape cases were reported to the police in recent months.
In expressing appreciation for the partnership to squeeze crime to zero through elimination of environmental factors that , the Mayor of Ramotshere Moila Local Municipality, Councillor Peter Pilane said that his municipality will do everything in its power to sustain the onslaught against lawlessness and crime.
Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality is one of the leading municipalities in the province in the implementation of the CPTED strategy aimed at reducing environmental factors like disused buildings and overgrown bushes along pathways thereby reducing opportunities for violent crime.
The municipality has installed 12 high-mast lights in Dinokana and Letsweletsoku at a cost of R2,3 million. It is also in the process of appointing contractors in the next few weeks to install 12 more high-mast lights to be spread across Gopane, Madutle and Mokgola villages.
The campaign was a joint effort that involved the South African Police Service,Zeerust Community Policing Cluster Board, the Zeerust Community Policing Forum. It was implemented in partnership with Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality and the provincial Department of Public Works, Road and Transport.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 381 9171
Cell: 083 629 1987
E-mail: LKgwele@nwpg.gov.za
