The community of Tshiozwi is tired of being terrorised by criminals and is pointing fingers at the police, claiming they are doing nothing about crime.

The chairperson of the local civic association, Mr Shaft Matumba, has appealed to the SAPS to maintain a policy of zero tolerance towards all crime. “Some of the community members have information about the crimes that have been committed in the area and are afraid to give information to the police,” he said.

He added that a lot of crimes had occurred in the area and in most of them the suspects were known by the community. He appealed to the police to work out a plan with time frames and to stipulate how the community can become involved in pro-active crime prevention. “Both the community and criminals should take notice of this plan,” he added.

“The time has arrived now for the community and the police to take hands in order to fight crime aggressively and pro-actively in an organised and results-driven manner. The alternative is that we will be too scared to live in this area and all doors will be closed in respect of any possible opportunities to be created,” says Matumba.

Cllr David Davhana called on all the community members to speak out on criminality. “So much crime is happening in the area and we do not even have an idea as to who is behind all this criminality. What has gone wrong in our village?” he asked.

He said it was clear that no person from another village could just come and commit crime in the area without the assistance of a local person. “Criminals live among us here in the village and it is up to us to expose them and to flush them from our midst,” he said.

Const Musiwalo Mahuwa of the Tshilwavhusiku SAPS said the police would spare no effort in the war against crime. "We will work together with community, civic organisations and other community stakeholders, until we defeat crime. We are going to work on the information and hope something positive is going to come out of this,” he said.