Young mother suffers verbal abuse from “mental” Trolley Guy

Date: 23 June 2018 By: Andries van Zyl

A young mother and her two children, aged two and four, found themselves the victims of extreme verbal abuse by one of Louis Trichardt’s many “mental patients” freely roaming the street. To make matters worse, the mother received no relief from the Makhado SAPS when she called upon them to assist her.

The young mother, who preferred to stay anonymous, told the Zoutpansberger of her harrowing experience last Monday at about 16:00 when she was confronted by the town’s by now infamous 'Trolley Guy'. For months now, he is frequently getting into confrontations with the public, mainly as a result of his glue-sniffing habits.

The mom went into town with her two children and parked in front of the Wimpy in Songozwi Street. “As I tried to get out of my vehicle, the 'Trolley Guy' came and stood at my window. He demanded money, so I ignored him and asked him to move away,” said the mom.

The 'Trolley Guy' bluntly ignored the mother and also refused to move away. “Two men who work at Clicks saw my distress and also tried to move him away, but he refused once again, so I opened my window a bit and gave him R2,” said the mom.

The mom’s gesture of goodwill was, however, not appreciated at all by the 'Trolley Guy'. In fact, it apparently infuriated him even more. "He refused to take the money and started swearing at me. He got very angry and then took out an empty bottle of wine and started hitting it on my window," said the mom.

While all of this was going on, the mom said she was left speechless by people’s reaction to her distress. “I saw people standing at Wimpy just laughing at me. Nobody helped me, so I just drove away,” said the mom.

The worst was, however, yet to come for the young mother. “I went to the police station and asked for assistance. The lady behind the counter said they had only two vehicles and one was in Elim collecting a mental patient and the other was in town and there was nothing she could do, because she couldn’t leave the station. I just walked away,” said the mom, dumbfounded that no police officer could assist her at the scene of an incident less than two street blocks away from the police station.

The mom got back in her vehicle and drove back to Songozwi Street. “As I drove back, I saw there was a police vehicle parked in front of Legit in the loading zone. I stopped my car and asked the woman sitting in the driver’s seat if I could speak to her. She just showed me with sign language that she was busy on the phone and didn’t help either,” said the mom. At that stage, added the mom, she spotted another police vehicle just on the opposite side of the road. “I didn’t even bother going to ask for assistance because the driver was waiting for an officer that went into Weldon’s Pharmacy,” said the mom.

“Where is a police officer when you need them?” the mom wanted to know.

The young mother’s case might sound familiar to other residents who have suffered abuse and damage in the past months at the hands of people known to suffer from mental illness. Recently, one of these encounters with one of Louis Trichardt’s known “mental patients” had fatal consequences.

In October last year, Detective Warrant Officer Andrew Nthabeleni Mudau (59), who was stationed at the Makhado SAPS, tried to arrest the 31-year-old Fhumulani Simali, but Simali resisted arrest and stabbed Mudau. Mudau was following up on information after cases of theft out of a motor vehicle and assault were reported against Simali, a person known to suffer from mental illness. Unfortunately, Mudau died as a result of being stabbed, while the court found Simali unfit to stand trial because of mental illness. He was subsequently placed permanently in a state-owned institution for mental patients.

Following the mothers run-in with the 'Trolley Guy' and the police’s failure to act, Makhado SAPS spokesperson Const Irene Radzilane said last week that they viewed the incident and the mother’s complaint against the police in a very serious light. “The complainant is advised to address a formal written complaint to the station commander for the matter to be investigated,” said Radzilane.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

More photos... 

Sorry, can’t help … I’m on the phone … This is the message a young mother from Louis Trichardt got from a female police officer when asked for assistance. Photo supplied.

After being told that there was no police vehicle available to give assistance at the scene of an incident just about one street block away from the police station, several police vehicles were spotted in the immediate vicinity but were all too busy to help. Photo supplied.