“Transfer the lazy police”

Complaints by residents of Mutele outside Thohoyandou about the conduct of police officers in the area might soon be resolved.

This follows the intervention of senior police officials in the province who have vowed to investigate the allegations to the full.

Thovhele William Mutele of Ha-Mutele outside Thohoyandou, a village where armed robbers killed a patron and injured two others before robbing scores more at a tavern a fortnight ago, came out spitting fire this week, accusing the police of colluding with criminals. He called on the police management in Limpopo to transfer the officers at the local Masisi police station to other areas, saying they were not prepared to work with the community.

Mutele's accusations emanate from incidents of armed robbery that happened in his area and the surrounding villages recently. After the tavern robbery, community members took it upon themselves to hunt down the alleged killers and, by using the footprints left by the robbers, they traced them to the neighbouring village of Sanari, where they arrested them.

Mutele said residents learnt with disgust that the suspects were later released because of no evidence against them. "People are angry and we do not know what is happening, because the police were supposed to have briefed us as leaders, so that we can pass on the message to our subjects, or they should have the decency to visit our village and explain to the residents, but that was not done. This just goes to show they are not prepared to work with the community," he said.

According to Mutele, the community now has such serious doubts about the police at Masisi that they feel they should be transferred to other areas and community-friendly officers be brought to work there. The local Mutele civic secretary, Ms Eidah Makhesha, said they were very concerned about the conduct of the police in the area. "We did our part as residents, helping the police by tracing the criminals. Instead of arresting them, they arrested members of the community. This is very sad as seven members of the community were arrested for nothing," she said.

Limpopo police spokesperson, Lt-Col Moatshe Ngoepe said the residents’ complaint was still being investigated. "We are appealing to residents that, in future if they have problems that cannot be solved at the local station, to contact the Thohoyandou Cluster Commander, Maj-Gen Rosina Mulaudzi at 082 451 7217," he said.

Date:12 May 2017

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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