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On Wednesday 9 September, a woman carrying a six-week-old baby was mugged just as she appeared from a passageway to join the queue outside Eden Park Clinic, Alberton (East of Gauteng). Witnesses said the man wore a red T-shirt and had been walking behind this woman in the passageway until he started walking faster to catch up with her.
“I thought they were a couple but when the woman started screaming as they were fighting for a bag I knew something was wrong. The lady must have grabbed the bag real tight because the culprit couldn’t snatch it from her. That’s when he slapped the baby to divert attention. Just as people and securities tried to intervene, the man ran off with the bag. Luckily some patients came with cars; they took some securities and chased him in cars,” a witness said.
The man was found with the bag and was taken to a police station, which is opposite the clinic. Four community members accompanied the woman to the police station to open a case. The police told her she could not open a case because she was able to get her bag back.
When she came back she explained to the people who had helped her and the Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs) who were waiting for a bus outside the clinic what the police had said. Some people thought this was unfair. “This criminal will be roaming the streets again. What will stop him from doing it again?” They felt this might encourage community members to take the law into their hands.
This article was submitted on 13 September 2020. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
