In yet another brazen break-in at a religious and cultural centre in Longbury, Phoenix, burglars vandalised and dismantled power cords and light fittings around the building on the eve of Diwali.
According to the head of the spiritual centre, Guru Surie Govender, the power cords were dismantled with the intention of returning and breaking into the main building the next day. She said she had lost count of the number of times the property has been broken into. Speaking to The Phoenix Tabloid, Guru Govender said: “After discovering the break-in on 3 November, we noticed that everything was in darkness and the damage had been done. We had to put security on site to guard the premises on the evening of Diwali. This was not the first time our premises had been broken into, these guys are coming into the property all the time and whatever they can lay their hands on, they steal. “They broke into our container, where we keep our stock, several times and made off with all the stock that was inside at one stage.” Guru Govender claimed that scrapyards were encouraging criminal activity by accepting stolen goods. “My main concern is that people steal to sell to scrapyards where these stolen goods are easily accepted and bought. People are always looking for ways and means to get money and for as long as the scrapyards are buying these stolen goods, we are going to continue to suffer,” said Guru Govender.
She said the youth, whom she suspects are runners selling drugs for drug lords, are in the area daily, lurking to see which property they can break into and steal. “These drug lords that are using the youth to run their business have destroyed our future generation. If you look around Phoenix, there’s a large number of youths that are unemployed, are on drugs and have become so brazen that while people are there, they are getting into the premises to get their hands on whatever they can get. When is this going to stop? The scrapyards and drug lords are getting rich while we suffer with the frequent robberies and break-ins,” said Guru Govender.
She said she had opened numerous cases with Phoenix SAPS. Previously, the perpetrators gained entry into the kitchen and stole dishes and groceries while last year during the hard lockdown, they bust open the stock room and stole over R50 000 worth of stock. “They stole brand-new stoves, grass-cutters, groceries and boxes of brass ware. We are struggling to maintain the premises yet people find it so easy to steal from us to make quick money from the scrapyards which encourage these criminal elements. Who is going to compensate us for maintaining worship sites like this for people to come to a place of sanction where they can find peace and harmony – a place that is being vandalised and destroyed by criminals. We have worked so hard and made great sacrifices to develop this worship site during trying times. We need this to stop, scrapyards must stop encouraging this behaviour,” added Guru Govender.
