A group of Heideveld residents are due in court next week after an altercation about loud music resulted in charges and counter charges of assault being laid.
Among the residents are two women who have accused Manenberg police ignoring their calls for help.
Ashoora Petersen and Muneeba Schaeffers who stay in Irene Court in Heideveld said they were assaulted by neighbours twice on Sunday April 18.
Ms Petersen said when she got home at about 2pm on the Sunday she was informed my a traumatised Ms Schaffers who stays with her, that one of the upstairs residents, Aisha Fernold, had come down to their flat and asked her to put the music softer – which she did.
Ms Petersen said Ms Fernold came downstairs a second time and again asked Ms Schaffers to turn the volume down.
She also called her family and the next door neighbour Charnelle Carolus who allegedly assaulted Ms Schaffers, she said.
“Her small boy was also shoved in the process. I went upstairs to Aunty Aisha to ask what had happened and they gave me a totally different story. I asked another witness and she confirmed Muneeba was attacked by the whole family,” she said.
“She came down she hit me three times on my chest, hit me with her phone in my face and pointed in my face, her mother came down and smacked me and Muneeba defended me and they attacked her.”
Ms Petersen said that later in the day, when one of their neighbours came to check on them, Ms Carolus verbally assaulted her and the woman.
Ms Schaffers said that they had tried calling Manenberg police station from 9am until 9pm that day but no one came to help them.
The following day, Monday April 19, she obtained a J88 form from Heideveld Day Hospital proving that she had been assaulted so that she could lay a charge at Manenberg police station against Ms Carolus and her family for assault.
The next day police arrested Ms Schaffers for assault and on Thursday April 22 both she and Ms Petersen were arrested on charges of intimidation. They are due to appear in the Fezeka (Gugulethu) Municipal Court on Thursday May 6. A mediation meeting was held on Monday April 19 but it did not solve anything, said Ms Schaffers.
Ms Petersen questioned why they were arrested but the other parties were not. “Why are the police being so unfair? We also made cases but no one is taking our cases seriously,” she said.
When Athlone News spoke to Charnelle Carolus, she said we had been given the incorrect version of the incident but refused to elaborate. When we went to her flat, Ms Fernold was not home and calls to her home went unanswered. Her husband, who was home when we visited, would not comment on the matter.
Asked to confirm Sunday’s events, Manenberg police station’s spokesman, Captain Ian Bennett, said there had been a “brawl” between nine women and one man in Irene Court on Sunday and that the following day all of the parties had opened cases of assault and intimidation against each other.
He said that all parties had been brought in for questioning and were interviewed during last week but were not arrested and were given notices to appear in court.
“I cannot officially comment on why police did not go out on the Sunday as I haven’t yet spoken to the officers who were on duty that day. Every complaint made is being attended to and taken seriously and will be dealt with by police,” he said.
Captain Bennett said that if anyone is unhappy about the services rendered they can contact Manenberg SAPS management on 021 699 9400 or himself on 082 499 4433.