There is an outcry in Mamelodi after the local BP petrol-filling station in Mahube Valley, Far East of Mamelodi township was bombed and robbed at 1.30 am today. (Wednesday morning).
This is the second time in a space of three months that a similar incident has hit the sprawling township.
In April this year the Shell and Total petrol-filling stations on Tsamaya Road, Mamelodi East, as well as the BP petrol-filling station in Mamelodi Gardens, were bombed and robbed one after another within minutes in what was described by observers as a “daring act of brinkmanship” on the part of the robbers.
Up to now perpetrators of the April bombing and robbery incidents have not been arrested.
Responding to the latest bombing and robbery incident at the BP petrol- filling station, Tshwane Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Johan van Dyk released the following media statement:
“While inside the convenience store of the BP petrol-filling station in Mahube Valley, the personnel suddenly saw seven to eight unknown African males appearing out of nowhere and entering the shop armed with high calibre weapons which they pointed at the personnel.”
“The suspects ordered them to get out of of the shop, took them outside, and instructed them to lay on the ground and after a few minutes they heard a loud explosion and then saw the suspects fleeing the scene with bags,” he said.
“While the suspects were running away from the scene, they were shooting live ammunition skyward in order to scare off people,” said van Dyk.
He elaborated that after the robbers had fled the scene, bystanders came and looted the shop and took away lots of items.
He said electricity in Mahube Valley went off at that time, thus making it difficult for witnesses to identify the vehicles used by the robbers as it was dark.
He revealed that at the time he released this media statement, electricity was still off in Mahube Valley
According to van Dyk, the suspects bombed the drop safe from outside the convenience store, and some money was left behind in the drop safe by the robbers when they got away.
But he explained that the money, which was in money bags, was badly damaged.
“The value of property taken away by the robbers and the looters is unknown at the moment and an undisclosed amount of cash was also taken away,” said van Dyk.
“All leads are being followed up by the police and we request any person with information to come forward and contact the Mamelodi East SAPS and all information will be treated as confidential,” he said.
Meanwhile, some residents have raised an outcry regarding the bombing and robbery of the Mahube Valley petrol-filling station.
“We are living in a war zone, criminals have declared war on the community and its businesses, but it is sad that some members of the community saw this incident as an opportunity to loot,” said a resident who refused to be named.
“Those who looted the store after it was bombed and robbed are as guilty as the robbers because there is a law known as “common purpose” and the common purpose of the looters and the robbers was to take away what rightfully doesn’t belong to them,” said a lady resident who could not hide her disgust regarding the bombing and robbery incident.
Racism is a colection of hang-up that politicians turn into a political racket.
My solution to the racial problem is plain old good governance.
Success breeds more success. Everyone wants to be part of a success, nobody wants to be part of a failure.
As long as your strategy for dealing with Racism is based on Fixing other people then you will always be part of the problem and never part of the solution.
All the textbooks and all the scriptures will tell you ,you can’t fix other peopl.
If you accept that you can’t fix other people then where do you go from the.
Its time to take the whole racial debate out of the political domain into the academic domain.
Put another way..
Take all those teachings you have learned from the pulpit, life coaching, transformation and mindfulness courses and aply those same principles to the racial debate
As long as good governance is a white supremacist plot then we will never solve the ravial problems in the world.