Thugs terrorise Monarch township

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.