By Everson Luhanga
Patrollers have stopped working the streets of Alex, leaving criminals to run amok in the township.
Angry residents hunted down two patrollers after they were accused by a gang of youths of murdering a cellphone thief last week.
The patrollers were caught and assaulted before being rescued by the police and taken to Masakane Clinic.
That was the last time they or any of their colleagues have been seen patrolling the township’s crowded and dangerous streets.
The patrollers are controversial. They don’t report to anyone, the police don’t vet them, and some have been accused of committing crimes on or off patrol.
However, the absence of patrollers in the township has seen a sharp rise in crime, with several hijackings, murders, street robberies, and incidents of gender-based violence reported to the police.
The latest incident happened on Tuesday when a man driving with his toddler in his VW Polo was hijacked at gunpoint. The car has not been recovered, and the child has not been reunited with the parents.
Other recent incidents recorded by the SAPS include:
- On 28 June, a man was hijacked along the busy London Road in Alex and survived a gunshot wound. The car was later recovered from the notorious Madala Hostel.
- On the same day, three suspects were arrested in Alexandra along London Road in the process of hijacking a motorist. One of the hijackers was shot and wounded, while two others surrendered to the authorities. An unmarked JMPD Tactical Response Unit police car was driving behind the victim at the time of the hijacking. Officers fired shots, injuring one of the suspects.
- On Monday, 1 July, a man was gunned down along Roosevelt Avenue.
- On the same day, another man was shot and killed in the same street by a group of gunmen.
- A third victim died the same day when he was stoned to death at the corner of Third and Roosevelt streets, next to Madala Hostel.
- On Wednesday, police arrested four teenagers who were allegedly part of the mob that assaulted the two patrollers. They have been locked up at Alexandra police station.
- A motorist was hijacked in Greenstone on Monday. The car was discovered in Alexandra.
- On Tuesday, a company car, a Toyota Hilux, was reported stolen in Edenvale and was recovered in Alex. Cops pounced on the suspects as they were stripping it.
- On the same day (Monday), another motorist was hijacked in Bramley along Forest Road and, again, the car was discovered in Alex.
- Also, on Monday, a woman was hijacked at gunpoint by three armed men at a filling station in the township.
Several other incidents have taken place in the township recently.
Vincent Ndima, one of the township’s community leaders, said the recent rise in crime is due to the patrollers’ absence.
“Criminals are aware that the patrollers who have been fighting crime in the streets of Alex are not working.”
He said the volunteer patrollers started their sterling work after six people were shot and killed in one night in July 2022.
Seven people were arrested for the murders.
Since then, there has been a decline in crime – until last week.
Ndima said the police are under-resourced.
“We have four sectors which at least three officers patrol. In a real sense, we have four police officers policing about 300,000 people each. Alexandra has over 1.2-million people.”
Ndima said former police minister Bheki Cele promised the township vehicles and human resources, which it has yet to receive.
At least four people, including two patrollers, were killed in Alexandra in 2023 when gunmen ambushed them.
Pictured above: One of the crime scenes in Alex.
Source: Everson Luhanga
