Residents of Ward 20 in the Thulamela Municipality have had enough of crime and would like to root out all criminals from their midst and see to it that the thugs are locked up behind bars. They displayed their unhappiness about crime last week by coming out in large numbers and marching to the local magistrate’s court to hand over a petition detailing their grievances.

Community leader Mr Todani Rambuwani said residents, particularly those of Maniini Block L, M West, M East and Tshiulungoma, have had enough of the criminal activities taking place in their areas. He said crimes such as house robberies, the raping of women and young girls as well as shebeen violence have become the order of the day. He said criminals had taken over the village where they roam the streets terrorizing residents at will. “We are at the mercy of these thugs and we need to act in order to stop them in their tracks,” he said. The community also complained about the way the Justice Department releases serious criminals on parole who go out terrorizing people again.

“As community leaders, we hope that our anti-crime concerns will one day be answered for the safety of our people. Justice institutions know their mandates and we are optimistic that the barbaric criminals will get a fair sentence that equals their crime,” he said. “We are law abiding citizens who strongly feel that government should pro-tect our children, mothers, grannies, and houses. Communities demand a crime-free South Africa and the march is for peace, safety and freedom in our homes,” said Ram-buwani. He commended the police for the wonderful job they are doing in fighting crime. “We always see vans patrolling our villages 24 hours a day and this brings much hope that crime would be totally rooted out one day,” he said.

On accepting the petition, Mr Azwihangwisi Ramavhale, a senior magistrate at the Thohoyandou Magistrate’s Court said communities had a right to express their dissat-isfaction in a peaceful way. “We understand your unhappiness about the way things are run, but we should follow the law. We must accept that there are things we cannot change and we will have to take them to the relevant authorities for attention,” he said. Ramavhale said they had a challenge in trying cases without witnesses, with people not coming forward with information that could be used against criminals. “We encourage our communities to bring forward any information that could be used to prosecute perpetrators of crime successfully and that communities organize themselves into policing forums that would help fight crime,” he said.