Only weeks after a mob turned on alleged thugs in Braamfischerville on the West Rand after residents accused police of abandoning them to gangsters, the police have again been accused of indifference as a Soweto gangster called ”Bin Laden” runs amok.
Residents of Dobsonville, Soweto, complain that the local police have failed to arrest a gangster and his henchmen who have gone on a murder, rape and robbery spree in the township. They say the gangsters roam freely throughout the area.
Dobsonville is next to Braamfischerville, 26 of whose residents appeared in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court recently in connection with the necklacing of suspected gangsters. Necklacing was a common way of punishing social outcasts in the 1980s: suspects were doused with petrol and a burning tyre was put around their necks.
The Braamfischerville residents say the murdered men were gangsters who had terrorised the community. The police, they say, had failed to act on repeated complaints by residents.
Bin Laden is said to lead a gang of about eight heavily armed men who prey on the residents of Dobsonville. The gangsters are alleged to have murdered 11 people, robbed scores of others and to have raped at least one woman recently. Three of the gang are said to be Bin Laden’s brothers.
Residents say three of the murders were committed over the Easter weekend. Since then they fear venturing out after dusk.
”Bin Laden’s” real name is known to the Mail & Guardian, but he has not been identified because he has not been charged with any of the crimes.
One resident says that once Bin Laden has drawn his gun he will not holster it before firing a shot.
Soweto police spokesperson Mba-zima Shiburi says the police want to speak to the man ”as we believe he could help us with our investigations”. Shiburi declined to say whether Bin Laden was being actively sought or how far the investigations had progressed.
Victims are in despair. The mother of the alleged rape victim says the local policemen ”act like women”.
”I went to the police station and told them to their faces that they [male officers] were all women. I told him that this boy was roaming freely in the township and asked them why they did not arrest him. They told me that they were also scared of him.”
The rape survivor says she has learnt that the local police had opened a docket but had never followed up the case. ”When we asked what had happened to the docket nobody at the Dobsonville police station was prepared to accept responsibility for taking my statement. The docket had nothing in it, not even a police stamp. The case has since been transferred to the Protea police,” she says.
”The worst part of this case is that I lost my virginity in this way.”
Tsholofelo Mchaza, at whose 21st birthday party in April Bin Laden and his gang allegedly murdered a reveller, said one of the gangsters lives on her street. She says he was walking around freely though he had openly took part in the killing in front of witnesses.
”We had asked the police to patrol the area, as is the norm when parties are held, but they never did. Even after the murder, which happened around 2am, [the police] only arrived at the house at around 6am or 7am.
”They parked a few houses away and openly told us that they were afraid of the gang.”
Mchaza says one of the gangsters, driving a white VW Microbus, grabbed a woman’s handbag. She asked him to return her asthma spray, but he refused. A male friend attempt to intervene, which cost him his life.
”They shot him outside the yard. My brother pulled him into the yard, but they scaled the walls and hit him with bottles and stones. ”The ambulance responded quickly and he was taken to hospital.
”I don’t know why the police have not arrested them because we showed the police footage of the video recording where the gangsters appear. Their minibus was also shown,” says Mchaza.
The problem is spreading, say residents. The community of Themba, near Hamaanskraal, north of Pretoria, lives in fear of a gangster they call ”Tshwane Metro”. He reportedly operates alone, but residents allege he robs them with impunity, has raped neighbours and has forced men and women to have sex as he watches.
”I don’t know if he has killed anybody, but young and old know and fear him. We don’t know why he has not been arrested and I fear that the community could end up taking the law into its own hands if nothing happens soon,” says a resident who declined to be named for fear of ending up as Tshwane Metro’s next victim.
Inspector Gabashane Moseki, police spokesperson in Marico, North West, says Tshwane Metro is the most wanted man in Themba and a police task force has been formed to track him down for a string of armed robberies and assaults.
”The problem is that the community that is complaining about him does not want to identify him. The police do not know him and it is therefore difficult looking for someone you do not know,” says Moseki. She says ”Tshwane Metro” escaped from police custody last November.
Ted Leggett, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said society was relying too much on the police to curb crime.
”While the threat of incarceration may be a threat to the law-abiding citizen, for many young men like these it demonstrates the fact that they are no longer children, that they are fearless and that they take risks.
”It is the drama of their lives and it is what gives their lives meaning.
”Police are not social engineers. They do not control the crime situation, it is a broader social problem that could be addressed by health, education, welfare and other social services. Poverty alleviation programmes are a crime-fighting measure.”