Thugs terrorise Monarch township

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Friday February 1, 2008 00:00

So serious was the situation between 2004 and 2005 that in a given month Kgosi Martin Burns Chilume got to hear up to 100 cases. That translated to over 800 cases annually.

'The situation is no longer that bad because nowadays, we have below 70 cases in a month. It is not that the incidences of crime and violence have decreased in Monarch. The police take cases to other customary courts like Donga and Tatitown. If all the cases were brought here, we would definitely have been overwhelmed,'said Chilume. He was echoed by Sekhurumelo Petso, an 81-year-old grandmother who said under normal circumstances, the setting of the sun would mean going to sleep peacefully, but with them, they sit with their hearts in their mouths.

She stays with her two grown-up grand children, including Obusitse Thanye, 26, who was home when the Mmegi team arrived at the place.

'It is as if we are not in our own home. We sleep with one eye open. The other time,  thieves broke the door with a brick, but when we screamed, they ran away. A few days ago, they struck again. It was between 1 am and 2 am.

'They violently shook the door. Fortunately, they did not gain entry again and when we asked who they were they left. My grandchild phoned the police but by the time they arrived, the intruders had already gone,' said the old woman, whose alertness belies her age.

Kubunganani Molapisi, 41, who volunteered to be our guide and is a neighbour of Petso's, echoed the old woman's remarks, saying thieves and muggers have taken control of the streets of Monarch. 'They swagger into our homes and open doors, especially at night and even the police appear to be helpless. When you call them, they come at their own time. I think, as residents of Monarch, we are coming to a point where we might take the law into our own hands,' he said.

As for Nolly Poloko, 33, an unemployed mother of four, who shares a one-roomed shack with her grandfather and grandmother, her four children and a sister. Crime is the last thing on her mind.

Her eldest child sleeps in a grass-thatched hut that acts like a sieve when it is raining. The child was away at school when we paid them a visit.

Poloko's cousin, Bakani Guluzwa, a 26-year-old security guard said the family manages to keep their heads above water through their grandmother, who is employed in town,   while the grandfather also contributes what he earns from piece jobs around the city.

'If only our situation would change. Otherwise, the thieves do not bother us. I think it is because they know they cannot find anything in our place. They would rather go to other houses,' said Poloko who had strapped her one year 10 months old baby on her back.

Kgosi Chilume pointed his finger at unemployment in the area as the cause of crime. 'There is a high rate of unemployment in the area. Youth in this place survive through piece jobs, which they fight over with Zimbabweans. That could be the reason for such high incidents of crime here,' said Chilume who has been court president since 1991.

However, the future does not look so gloomy after all. Chilume said he is happy because there are developments in the pipeline, something which makes him very happy. 'Internal roads are to be constructed. Houses along the envisaged roads are being demolished and owners compensated. The sewerage system is being upgraded and the bridge that connects us with Blue Town is being constructed,' Chilume said.Where Monarch is located used to be a gold mine, which has since been closed because it was unprofitable. The mine is now a gaping hole, which saw to the demise of two men, a few years back.The story, which is now taking the shape of a legend, has it that an old woman was out gathering firewood when two men confronted her.

She escaped from them, using paths that she knew until she was on the other side of the hole, which was covered in thickets.The men who were in hot pursuit, did not see the hole and ended up falling into it. The police and soldiers were called to fish them out, but they did not find anything. The men were presumed dead.