Residents of Kanana township outside Orkney in the North West, yesterday picketed outside the Klerksdorp Magistrates Court, calling for the release of seven mini taxi drivers, popularly known as Tambai drivers.
The suspects, who have been in custody since June last year, are accused and have been charged with common assault after beating up a man who had stolen a cellphone from a community member.
The residents said since the operators were arrested, crime has increased in their area because of the Tambai operators who were coming to the rescue of commuters on many occasions..
Ntswaki Maine said the police are unable to intervene when acts of criminality are committed and when residents call them, they are always given excuses such as ‘the vehicles are not available’.
“But at that moment someone is screaming and dying. When we call the Tambais, they come very quickly and save us. However, since they have been detained, their case has been left unsolved, and nobody knows what is going on,” she said.
Maine also said ever since the group was arrested eight women in Kanana were brutally killed and said she believes that had the group been not in police custody, the number could have been lesser.
“We respectfully request that the court free them; if they were on the wrong side of the law, let the government teach them so that they may assist the police, who are usually late in assisting us,” she implored.
Masedi Sebetwane, a Tambai operator, confirmed that their actions assisted the police in reducing crime and since some of the members were arrested, crime has gone up.
“We were able to help the police to reduce crime since these people were arrested, the crime rate is high, and our police did not like what we were doing,” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from the police were unsuccessful. The case was postponed to March 24, for further investigations.
