Family regrets ‘rough search for drugs’ |30 August 2012

In a widely circulated letter, 76-year-old former teacher Sarah Carolus says she wrote it in good faith and that her family supports law enforcers in their fight against drugs and crime.

Noting society has both law abiding people and criminals, Mrs Carolus gives details of how their home was raided by the supposed NDEA agents who refused to identify themselves:

“When asked who they were or why they were there, they replied with arrogance ‘Taler ou a konnen’ and that their uniform was enough to say who they were.

“Their behaviour left a lot of doubt as to whether they were really genuine law enforcement agents.

She said during the three-hour ordeal they endured at gunpoint one of her grandchildren, who was trembling and in tears, cried out:

“Thieves have entered our house and they are going to shoot us and my daddy. My daddy is going to die. I pray that some angels will come to rescue us.”
 
She says it is not possible to put on paper the fear, the terror, the trauma they went through.

“We were full of panic trying to guess what this was all about and running through our minds were thoughts that at any time they would be shooting us as the men fidgeted with and clicked their weapons for hours.”

“In our minds we were thinking if these were NDEA agents they would have been more professional in their approach and would not be terrorising civilians and us as a family, especially with children and the elderly around.”

She thanks the National Council for Children for “counseling for the child who lived through this nightmare and for all the support we have been receiving from our church, from friends and family”.

The NDEA yesterday issued a press release saying as a result of confidential information they got, its agents carried out a number of drug searches on Friday August 24, 2012

“The agents were on high alert as the information was that a person involved had issued a death threat, and had a gun.”

Acknowledging they got a complaint letter, the NDEA said “a full investigation is being carried out and if any breach of discipline or abuse of power is uncovered immediate disciplinary action will be taken”.