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Alleged undocumented foreigners arrested in Durban raid ahead of festive season

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Several foreign nationals have been arrested at a building on Mahatma Gandhi Road, formerly known as Point Road, in the city of Durban.

It is alleged the foreigners failed to produce documentation of being in the country legally.

They were arrested during the safety-campaign operation led by Police Minister Bheki Cele ahead of the festive season.

Police will be out in numbers to ensure safety in all parts of KwaZulu-Natal during the festive season. Additional officers will be deployed in strategic hotspot areas.

As part of the provincial festive season safety campaign launch, police raided some of the buildings in Durban that have been identified as a den for criminals.

Police Minister Bheki says all hotspot areas will be under close police watch.

“Anywhere there are people with a high visibility of untraceability, that is a problem. In these areas there are people who come from different countries. We have a way of tracing and identifying people in South Africa and if they are not in the system whatever crime they commit, it will be very difficult to trace them. It is a hotspot not only during Christmas but all the time.”

KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, who was also part of the safety campaign operation, says government was interdicted from demolishing the building.

“Now we are told that this building here the people who stay filed for an interdict to stop the government and the municipality from closing it down. Now you see and understand the problems being created in not taking action. One there are drugs there, there are illegal people and the building is not safe, it can collapse anytime. People can die here and if that happens, government can be blamed. Yet government tried to act but the court said no. That is the problem that we have. Law enforcement agencies and judiciary have to work together.”

Truck accidents

Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal government is worried about high number of crashes involving trucks.

At the beginning of November, it emerged that a son of Minority Front leader, Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi, and his fiancée are among the deceased in a multi-vehicle pile-up on the N3 near the Marianhill Toll Plaza.

A total of four people were killed in the crash.

The Road Transport Inspectorate said up to 15 vehicles were involved in the crash.

The truck driver, who allegedly caused the crash, was arrested and appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court.

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Dube-Ncube also urged road users to be cautious on the roads. She expressed concerns over the number of crashes in the province.

She says, “The recent crashes that we recent seen in our province continue to claim lives and this is a great concern to our economy. The road deaths are the national crisis right now. We call on the road users, particularly the Road Freight industry, to attend to issues of errant truck drivers that have really taken many lives and we have seen that trucks have been the common denominator and we wish to really call upon our RTI and all other law enforcement agencies that let join hands and fight against these truck drivers that are law to themselves.”

Police will also be deployed in various malls, beaches and on the national roads to ensure safety throughout the festive season.

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