The Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nneke Ledwaba condemns the continuous ignorance by the Stokvel Social Clubs and other money collecting structures, for continuing distributing their collected money in cash instead of utilizing the transactional system or the EFTs.
This condemnation follows the two separate incidents in the Tzaneen and Burgersfort Clusters where a large amount of cash was robbed.
It is alleged that on Sunday the 2017-12-10 at about 13:00, a group of 45 women gathered at Ga-Seaphole Village in the Mokwakwaila Policing area of Bolobedu outside Tzaneen to share their cash.
During this sharing process inside the locked house, two armed suspects pounced on them, they demanded money and started shooting randomly, and injuring one of them and subsequently, a large amount of money was robbed before they fled the scene.
The injured woman was immediately taken to hospital where she is still recuperating with serious gunshots wounds throughout her body.
Meanwhile, in the Mecklenburg Policing area outside Burgersfort, the Police are still on a massive manhunt for a group of armed suspects on a case of house robbery which occurred also on Sunday the 2017-12 10 at about 02:00 at Margate section of Mongatane Village.
It is alleged that the victim was sleeping with her children in the early hours when two unknown armed suspects attacked them and robbed her of cash which she received when they shared with other women during the day and cellphones before they fled the scene without injuring anyone.
The suspects in the two incidents are unknown and there is no arrest.
As the Police, we have made this earnest call throughout this year and re-iterated it since the beginning of this festive period as part of our ongoing crime awareness campaigns but some of our communities continue to ignore it.
This ignorance might have given birth to the scourge of these incidents of robberies in the Tzaneen and Burgersfort Clusters in recent days.
THE STOKVELS CLUBS ARE ADVISED TO UTILIZE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS TO DISTRIBUTE THEIR MONEY TO THE RESPECTIVE BANKS OF THEIR CHOICE INSTEAD OF DISTRIBUTING CASH, TO PREVENT THESE TYPE OF INCIDENTS FROM OCCURRING.
Anyone with information about these group of armed criminals, may contact Captain Richard Boshomane at 079 894 5501 or Crime Stop at 08600 10111 or SMS Crime Line at 32211.