Lim police boss warns “lazy” policemen

Incidents of ritual killings, kidnapping, missing persons and mob justice have been rising in Limpopo, and mostly in Vhembe, in recent times. In most of the cases, police are being blamed for not responding on time when called and not using the information given to them by the residents.

This has angered residents, who reached boiling point and left a trail of destruction in their wake. Three weeks ago, a police station and two vans were torched at Vhulaudzi after police failed to arrest a suspect in a missing-person case. After the burning of the station, the police acted swiftly and arrested the boyfriend of the missing woman and he pointed out the body at some nearby bushes.

A week ago, a woman who was pointed out in the case of a missing person at Tshamulungwi was followed to her place at Tshibvumo where four vehicles and a seven-room house were burnt down.

The members of the Indian community who were victims of attacks last week said they had not received any help from the police, even though the Thohoyandou police are just a stone's throw away from them.

These are just some of the many incidents where the police were blamed. Following on these incidents and an increase in crime, Limpopo police chief General Nneke Ledwaba lambasted the lazy police officers and the criminals, saying they would be taken to task. Ledwaba was speaking during a crime-awareness campaign held at Tshibvumo in the Rammbuda area on Friday.

The area has recently been hard hit by crimes such as mob justice, where houses and vehicles of suspects in ritual killings were torched by angry community members.

Before addressing the main event at the local sports field, Ledwaba, who was in the company of senior management and many police officers as part of their safer-schools programme, visited 15 schools in the area where he addressed issues of crime to the learners.

Date:29 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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