A woman living in Turncroft Place, Unit 8, was left distraught as she watched her car go up in flames in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Vino Paramathadu, 46, an unemployed mother of two, used her coral-pink Daihatsu Sirion, 2006 model, to transport workers daily to and from work and now she has been left without a source of income. “The incident occurred around 1.38am to 2am on Saturday morning. Camera footage showed two males walking up Ridgecroft Drive with a five litre gallon of petrol. They set my car alight and then left the gallon next to the car and fled. My neighbours who were asleep heard the sound of my car alarm and they also heard the flames hissing. We handed the gallon over to police for fingerprints,” said Paramathadu.
Paramathadu believes that the incident could be related to issues of safety and security that she and other residents raised. “Recently we raised concern about unknown people entering the area. Some residents allege that these unknown people may be visiting a gentleman who lives in the area. As residents, we asked for more security in the flat such as locked gates and for the damaged fence to be fixed.”
She claimed that the six-family flat does not have a body corporate and alleged that trustees do not pay the levies. “Some unknown people had broken the fence and now anybody can enter the yard. We have children, teenagers and young daughters living in the flat and it has become unsafe for them.” She said that she did not have conflict with anyone and cannot understand why she is being targeted. “I am unemployed. I transport people to work. My car was my source of income. My car was not insured as I was in the process of changing insurance companies. Why am I being targeted?” lamented Paramathadu.
A resident living in the flats, who did not want to be named, said that they do not want drugs in the area as there are youngsters living in the community. “Paramathadu did a lot of good for the community. When she transported her children to school, she took other children as well. Now she is using her car to transport workers daily. We don’t want drugs in our street as we wish to protect our children and our youngsters. The community has petitioned against this drug problem which is out of control at night.
The community is fed up. We need police to patrol the area at night.” The community is calling for night patrols and also for more residents to be part of the Turncroft Community WhatsApp group so that they can be informed of crime or emergencies. Captain Louise Naidoo, the spokesperson for Phoenix SAPS said that a case of malicious damage to property has been opened where a petrol bomb was thrown at the complainants vehicle on 18 September around 2am. If anyone wishes to assist Paramathadu, contact Sector 3 CPF on 074-469-8122 for more information.
