Check contractors, homeowners warned

2010-04-29 12:15

Johannesburg - A security company warned house owners to check out the reputation and security of service contractors before allowing them onto their properties.

Allan Stott, managing director of Piranha Security, the company which attended the scene where 1-year-old baby Marzanne Kruger and her minder Francina Sekhu were brutally assaulted, said house owners should be very careful about who works on their property.

"In 60% of cases where there was a robbery, and the people had someone working on the property before, chances are that one of the workers was involved or gave out information to someone who was involved," said Stott on Thursday.

Baby still in serious condition

Baby Kruger and Sekhu were attacked last Thursday when three men allegedly robbed the house. One of the men, a Mozambican citizen, known as Chakhoma Machaba, 28, reportedly befriended Sekhu while the men worked on renovations on the Kruger family house in Roosevelt street in Robindale, Randburg.

Baby Kruger was still sedated in the Sandton Medi-clinic, a week after being assaulted.

"Her condition is still the same. She is serious but stable, and there is no change since yesterday [Wednesday]," said hospital spokesperson Liezl Furlong.

Two men, Nelson Maphosa, 28, and Geraldt Nyantumbo, 25, were arrested for the attack and were charged with attempted murder and robbery with aggravated circumstances, but Machaba was still at large.

Gauteng police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Opperman said Machaba was the main suspect.

"We are still looking for him," he said.

Link between workers, robberies

Stott said service contractors, including builders, plumbers and garden services, regularly picked up workers they did not know to help out on properties.

"Chances are amongst the guys they pick up there is at least one illegal immigrant," he said.

"How do you know that person is not a thug or a criminal?"

Johan Burger, crime researcher at the Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies, said there was usually a link between workers who worked on a site and a robbery that occurred at the same place in a certain timeframe.

He said, however, no research had been done to establish statistics on the matter.

- SAPA