SAPS recovery of stolen cars over the Mozambique border has seen 64 vehicles returned to South Africa. While the South African Police Service celebrates this, it acknowledges there’s still plenty of work to do in the fight against hijacking.
As The South African reported last month, the South Africa-Mozambique border is plagued with outlaw towns overrun by smugglers. Holes in the fence and crude ramps are just some of the techniques used to keep the illicit, R5-billion-per-year trade of stolen vehicles in Mozambique going.
SAPS RECOVERY OF STOLEN CARS
However, The Citizen reports that a cross-border task team in the SAPS recovery of stolen cars is yielding results. In the last twelve months, South Africa-Mozambique border policing has recovered 64 vehicles. The special task team has been in place for just over one year and has also arrested 140 suspects linked to cross-border vehicle theft syndicates.
Police Minister Bheki Cele was in Maputo recently for a two-day Ministerial visit. He and Mozambique Minister of the Interior General Pedro Ronda announced the success of SAPS recovery of stolen cars. However, at last count, more than 5 500 vehicles were stolen or hijacked in South Africa in just the last three months.
MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE
That equates to a mind-boggling 1 800 per month, 60 per day, or 2.5 every hour. Therefore, the task force’s efforts in one year account for just one day’s worth of stolen cars in Mzansi. Most vehicle theft occurs in Gauteng and neighbouring northern provinces. Therefore, vehicles don’t have far to go to the border. “These criminals will remain a few steps ahead if we don’t increase our own agility,” said Cele in Maputo.
Nevertheless, as insurmountable as those numbers may appear, Mozambican and South African officials are meeting regularly to solve the problem. As part of the bilateral working group, they have set up command offices, detective teams, border policing forces and crime intelligence departments. Vehicle theft, drug trafficking, kidnapping and terrorism threats are also part of their remit. The task team says it has also seized nearly R100-million worth of drugs, too.
VICTORIES AGAINST SMUGGLERS
Besides 64 vehicles returned and 140 arrests, dozens of firearms and rifles used in the crimes have been recovered. SAPS says a key mastermind in the cross-border crime ring has also been arrest and is due to be extradited back to Mozambique.
“The SAPS management and Police Ministry is convinced that such agreements with regional counterparts will improve the country’s ability to combat cross-border crimes and promote peace stability and security within the region,” concluded Cele.
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