A father and daughter who seek refuge in a quiet suburban garden cottage have become the captives of an alleged terrorising roommate and victims of a lethargic law-enforcement system.
When Vanessa Merifield (48) and her elderly father Jack Ceroni (71) moved into 1 Third Avenue, they thought they had struck a good deal at R1 500 a month. They were horribly wrong.
What followed is a tragicomedy of such bizarre proportions that it makes your average soap opera look like one of the biblical gospels.
First they allegedly are deceived into thinking that they have the cottage only to themselves. They soon find out that they are sharing it with a man who allegedly soon turns their lives into a nightmare. They claim that they now face a landlord with divided loyalties, attempts of violence that allegedly includes Ceranio being attacked with a bathtub and a javelin respectively, surreal requests (“don’t make friends with the animals without my permission”), domestic violence, theft, damage to property, diesel thievery and a Nigerian hit man is hired for protection.
Soon Merifield and Ceroni have no choice but to turn to the SAPS, but things go pear shaped. A first peace order is issued and the alleged antagonist turns up for the court hearing. He allegedly breaches the peace order and on a second summons fails to appear for the court hearing. A warrant of arrest is issued.
Two cases of assault are made against him in the aftermath of his nonappearance and that is when the gross negligence/ disinterest/ corruption of the SAPS start beaming like a blue light on a police bakkie when the officer realises he forgot to buy bread on his way home.
The officer dealing with the warrant of arrest is never available. The Lieutenant dealing with Merifield’s case of assault informs her that although the suspect’s whereabouts and the hours he is “available for arrest” are handed to him on a silver platter, that he “only works office hours” and therefore can not arrest the accused after hours. The constable investigating Ceranio’s assault case allegedly is “nauseatingly arrogant” and “struggles with grammar”.
The drama carries on from May until September. The Record is approached. On 5 September the Roodepoort Station Commander fails to honour an appointment that was made a week prior and confirmed half an hour before said meeting with the Record is supposed to take place. This was supposed to give SAPS the opportunity to tell their side of the story. The Record is then made to wait 45 minutes for an acting station commander who treats the journalist with the disdain that the media deserves when they start questioning the shady behaviour of law enforcement.
Five hours pass and said Colonel suddenly contacts the Record. Now everyone including the cluster commander is involved wanting to solve the problem. (Let it be noted here that members of the SAPS visited the subject of the warrant of arrest’s abode to investigate and question him on the two assault cases but when they are shown the warrant of arrest by the complainants they refuse to arrest him.)
At one stage the Captain investigating Ceranio’s case gives him a scrap of paper with the case number on it and tells Ceranio, who allegedly has been assaulted by the suspect, to go and tell the suspect that he must be in room such and such the next day to be arrested.
There were other irregularities as well:
• Court clerks and officials allegedly tell the complainants that the suspect is “a good man, why do you run to the police every five minutes laying charges?”
• The accused allegedly brags that he is untouchable because he “has friends” and “money”
• The accused’s employer allegedly investigates him for stealing diesel, which allegedly he resells from said address
• The Housing Tribunal warns Roodepoort SAPS that they fear for Ceranio and Merifield’s lives but no action is taken
• The complainants are told that arrest on the grounds of breaking a peace order will take two to three months – a magistrate subsequently loses his temper stating it is supposed to take two to three days. The complainants allege that the accused is familiar with court officials and flirts with the “attractive court clerk” who says it will take three months for an arrest to be made
• An operation to arrest the accused is set up for 2 August at 2am but the police never shows up
• The court refuses to take into account the more than 200 voice recordings, photos and video clips that serve as supporting evidence
“It is disgusting that the public will get justice only once they turn to the press. What about the hundreds of cases that the media do not cover? Why should the press be our only avenue to enforce justice from the police,” Merifield and Ceranio want to know.
All officers involved are known to the Record.
The accused denies all allegations.
Roodepoort SAPS is yet to comment or defend themselves.
Lady Justice prefers orange juice with her brunch and a sleeping tablet at about 3pm.
Thank you for bringing the lackadaisical attitude of the SAPS and the inefficiency of the court officials to light, however, it is important to note that the owner of the property is not the perpetrator of the assaults, domestic violence, theft, damage to property and alleged diesel thievery, but the co-tenant of the cottage