Lerato Sengadi opens up about attempted mugging & allegedly being blocked by SAPS on Twitter

Having gone through the traumatic experience of an attempted mugging, media personality Lerato Sengadi has accused the government and police of “failing” to protect women against predatory thugs.

HHP's widow and well-known publicist shared on Twitter that she was almost mugged during her morning jog last Thursday. 

Lerato told TshisaLIVE that she acted almost automatically in the face of danger. She explained that while many may have attempted to run, she was prepared to fight, but when the thug tried to yank her phone from her, the force saw her plummet to the ground.

“I fell to the floor and I stayed on the floor because I thought, if he's going to kidnap me, then he's going to have to carry me and I know he won't be able to lift me. If he was after my phone, he would still need to lift me,” Lerato said.

Lerato quickly found out on her TL and in her DMs that many other female joggers had been targeted by the same criminals who used the same modus operandi. She then went to the police station, where she opened a case and apparently also found out that the police were already aware of the car and similar crimes had been reported in suburbs such as Sandton.

“We aren't safe, we can't even walk in peace. When I went to the police, they opened a case but were also like, 'oh yeah, this thing is a problem, these guys are doing this'. But I was also like, 'if you guys are aware that this is an ongoing issue, why are you not patrolling these areas'. I mean, there was no police car in sight.”

Lerato was further shocked when she took to Twitter to try to tag the SAPS Twitter account and found that she was "blocked". This was something she didn't understand at all, especially because she couldn't think of a reason they would do that.

“I was just trying to tweet them to be like, 'guys please ... can you please just do something to protect women because these thugs are specifically targeting women, not men.' That is all I was trying to say and that's when I found out I was blocked.

“I don't understand, when or why ... like it's ridiculous. You can't block civilians on a platform that you say you have available for them to communicate with SAPS, that is irresponsible and ridiculous!”

SAPS Twitter page kept mum on the reasons they blocked Lerato when her fans tagged the page to find out why.

Speaking to TshisaLIVE, police spokesperson Capt Kay Makhubela said he was unable to comment on the Twitter page as it was run at the national level. He said Reneilwe Serero would be better suited to answer the enquiry, however, Reneilwe was unavailable to comment at the time of publishing this article.

Known for her persistent nature, Lerato didn't give up on trying to get someone to account for why no action was allegedly being taken to protect female joggers from predators.

Read her full thread, meant for the president and the government, below: