A non-profit organisation that provides meals and training for residents in Vrygrond and surrounding areas was the target of vandals twice in one week.
Mymoena Scholtz, founder of the Where Rainbow Meets Training and Development Foundation, says staff were shocked to find two of their buildings in disarray on Tuesday 18 April.
“We did not cook today because we were all in a state (of shock) and everyone felt that they wanted to help get the place organised for the kids to go back into the ECD centre but it was really not a good feeling coming here.
“We usually feed over 500 people but those who were hungry and in need of a meal had to be turned away.
“Today is a big loss because we had to turn 100 seniors away and that does not include the mothers and children.
“This is our training facility and we run our ECD programme in here and the other building is our office where the alarm and everything is linked to our CCTV cameras, they broke that so nobody could see what was happening.”
Scholtz further explains that vandals also damaged the kitchen roof where they failed to gain access.
“They tried to break into the kitchen so they broke the roof.”
It is not the first time the organisation experienced a break-in, she adds.
“I’ve spoken to the police and said there are so many cases of ours where they’ve broken into for the past 15 years and we have the case numbers.
“I then asked the police whether this is going to be something just hanging in the air or are they really going to try and find the perpetrators.”
Stage six load shedding is not helping matters either as the break-ins seem to occur when the lights are out, she continued.
“It happened through the night. Our CCTV main screen is gone, they’ve taken kettles and the computer in the office. There are so many things that are missing but we are still going through everything.
“Load shedding is a big problem, especially when it comes to the alarm system and CCTV cameras, if someone is on the premises we are not able to see it. It messes up everything. It is just sad that we had to bring the kids into an environment like this.”
What is worrying is that perpetrators may be using children to gain access through small spaces, added Scholtz.
“The mere fact that we see the holes being very small, to gain entry to the buildings, we figured that they used a child to do these things, which is sad.”
Scholtz further says the whole community is not to blame but rather certain individuals, namely drug addicts.
“We know for a fact, we can’t blame the whole community. The community showed a lot of compassion and they are also very sad that people would do something like this because you don’t chop the hand that feeds you.
“We know it is the drug addicts, they are just messed up so they will steal and break into anyone’s place and they unfortunately made this their target.
“We want the community to start taking ownership of organisations and projects because they are the eyes and ears of the organisation and should protect what is there for them.”
