Handcrafted wooden ladders and inflatable boats. These are the tools that law-enforcement officials have retrieved in the last two months while enforcing immigration restrictions.
Dodgy entrepreneurs used this equipment to transport illegal immigrants and goods across the Limpopo River between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Also confiscated were home-made wooden step ladders used to cross the bridge.
Limpopo police spokesperson Colonel Malesela Ledwaba said: “Subsequently, all the ferris and ladders were destroyed.
“The initiative is to make sure that all illegal crossing of the border and smuggling of all illicit cigarettes and any other smuggling of any goods or human beings was brought to the attention of the [parliament’s] portfolio committee by the national head of border policing, Major-General Duncan Scott,” said Ledwaba.
He explained that the success comes after the border policing teams from various provincial border posts were deployed at the Beitbridge port of entry in Limpopo for the execution of the high-density operation Vala Umgodi since December 14.
The operation is expected to continue for some months to come.
Zero-tolerance approach
Lieutenant-Colonel Boitumelo Ramahlaha said: “This operation is not only aimed at being a high-density disruptive operation; it is in fact an uncompromising zero-tolerance approach to all forms of criminal conduct.
“Coming into our country without necessary documents is a criminal offence. This operation is aimed at stopping illegal crossings of people and goods, but it has actually effectively managed to arrest and detain all those who broke the law at our borders.
“Our objective is to make life very difficult for the criminals.”
Ledwaba said millions of rands worth of illicit cigarettes were recovered, and hundreds of illegal immigrants were arrested and processed with the collaborative efforts of the Department of Home Affairs.
The illegal immigrants were then deported back to their countries of origin.
Also retrieved during the operation were numerous air inflatable boats and homemade wooden ferris that were being used for ferrying illegal immigrants and goods across the Limpopo River between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Influx of illegal immigrants
The provincial police commissioner in Limpopo, Lieutenant-General Thembi Hadebe, hailed the collaborative efforts by the teams involved in the execution of Operation Vala Umgodi.
She said: “Our province is reported to have an excessive influx of illegal immigrants and the smuggling of counterfeit goods into our country through the Beitbridge port of entry.
“With this massive operation of the high-density Operation Vala Umgodi, we are able to reduce the number of crimes relating to the smuggling of persons and counterfeit goods into the Republic of South Africa.”
