- ”Border management Operations to be upscaled as the festive season nears”
Musina, Limpopo – The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is battling to contain illegal migrants crossing into South Africa from the Zimbabwe border, said a SANDF official.
Briefing the media recently in Musina, Lieutenant Colonel Mzoxolo Ketsekile, Battalion Commander of Operation Corona, said they have deployed many soldiers along the border to stop people smuggling goods and crossing in and out of the country at undesignated points.
He said illegal border crossing is prevalent along the borderline and it occurs daily with undocumented persons crossing mainly from our neighboring countries into South Africa. Ketsekile said illegal crossings are done anytime of the day, however most crossings take place at night or early in the morning to try to avoid the deployed personnel.
”There are people who are called the Goma Gomas who take undocumented people across the borderline, once they have crossed they will rob or even rape women knowing that these are undocumented persons will not report the crime to the South African Police Services (SAPS) as they will be deported back to their country.” said Colonel Mzoxolo.
He said pregnant females cross to South Africa to give birth in South African hospitals and try to register the child as South African in order to obtain a grant. Ketsekile said the high cost of living, high unemployment in the neighboring countries are some of the push factors forcing them to illegally cross to South Africa in search for greener pastures.
Colonel Ketsekile also pointed out that the smuggling of illegal cigarettes has become a very lucrative business for criminal syndicates. He also noted that other goods are being smuggled across South African borders includes copper, ivory, explosives and drugs. The explosives are used in both ATM bombings and illegal mining.
He said, ”They are formed in the following syndicates or groups, they are cigarette smugglers, vehicle smugglers, counterfeit goods and contrabands smugglers, goma gomas or transporters, poachers, commercial explosive smugglers, undocumented persons or stock thieves.”
During the operation, the soldiers arrested 90 Zimbabwean males, 54 Zimbabwean females, 5 Ethiopian males, 3 Batswana males, 2 Malawian males adding up to a total of 154 people. In addition, fines mounted to R35, 350,00, Cigarette worth R8 421 545 38, Dagga R1, 520 00, Drugs,R700, alcohol R32, 245.00, groceries R249, 900.00, vehicles R3 741, 260.00, others R21 015, 715.00 all this total R33 498,23.38 were seized.
Major Shihlangoma Mahlahlane, Bravo Company Commander Operation Corona who is also deployed at the border said that they patrol throughout the year regardless.
He said, ”The challenges that we face on a daily basis is that people are always negative about us because we are destabilizing their operations because they can not do illegal stuff.”
Major Mahlahlane said the fence on the border line with Zimbabwe was cut and people passby carrying groceries. He said when they try to apprehend suspects they run to the river and also the unofficial structures along the border. He said that these structures should be taken away because it is illegal to have structures within a 10km radius.
Major Mahlahlane said, ”We hand them over to the military police and the military police then takes them to SAPS or Border Management Authority (BMA) because they have an immigration officer that it where now they will be able to deport them to their countries.”
Captain (SAN) Jacobus Theunissen, the Senior Staff Officer Operational Communication at Joint Operations Division, said they will scale up border patrols.
