KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has allayed the fears of residents of uMkhanyakude in northern KwaZulu-Natal, saying the police unit set up to focus on cross-border crime remains active.
He was responding to concerns from some residents who claim cross-border crimes have spiked in the area in recent weeks. This includes killings, carjackings and the smuggling of illicit goods.
Umkhanyakude has been battling cross-border crimes for more than a decade.
The task team made up of specialised units and organised crime detectives from outside the province, was deployed to the area in March. This followed the killing of anti-crime activist Judah Mthethwa in February.
By July, police reported that 63 hijacked vehicles that had been smuggled into Mozambique had been recovered and that 103 people, including an alleged kingpin linked with the syndicate, were arrested.
Speaking to concerns about a recent spike in cross-border crimes, Chairperson of the Jozini Community Policing Forum, Joseph Ngubane, says one person has been killed and six 4×4 vehicles have been smuggled into Mozambique in the last three weeks.
“Some of these incidents occur during the night when police are not on the border posts. Cars are still smuggled and people are still being killed. There’s one person who has been a hijack victim and his car taken away. Our appeal is for our government to have bilateral engagements with their counterparts in Mozambique so that they will come up with a solution to stop the market of these vehicles.”
Mkhwanazi says the unit remains present in the area.
“We are still containing crime in that area. We are still pretty much present, there will be incidents there and there that will be happening, but it is not alarming enough for us to be worried. We have not reached that stage as yet, we are going to continue engaging the community. We have got a lot of community structures, we have just had an imbizo in that area just to hear the views of the community, whatever was discussed there we are working on it.”
Umkhanyakhude is among the areas that police plan to remain on high alert throughout the festive period.
