Gauteng Community Safety MEC, Sizakhele Nkosi-Malobane, says her department will intensify efforts to rid the province of undocumented people through the Operation Fiela Campaign.
Nkosi-Malobane says she is in talks with other departments to ensure strict access at the country’s ports of entry. She however says, this is not targeted at foreign nationals but those who commit crimes while in the country.
She has been speaking at the routine performance review meeting with the leadership of the Provincial Law Enforcement Agencies.
Nkosi-Malobane says Gauteng province has decided to relaunch the Operation Fiela Campaign to deal with the influx of undocumented people.
” Undocumented individuals, we are actually going to make sure that we get rid of them in this province. Whether arresting and sending them home.”
Nkosi-Malobane says the murder rate in Gauteng is high because of illegal mining. She says Operation Fiela has a special unit that will help deal with the scourge of illegal mining.
” In December almost in one week there were seven bodies and four bodies. Meaning we had to pick up 11 bodies. Seven male bodies and four female bodies. Eleven people dying in one week is too much. We also suspect they were killed by illegal people in this province. They were killed underground and they were brought up except for the women, but seven were killed underground and they were brought up by people who work on the illegal mining.”
She also says human trafficking is a problem in the province. The MEC also says that police have been deployed at institutions of higher learning to tackle the scourge.
” In different areas, we have seen an increase on human trafficking. Between January and February we get a lot of cases of young girls particularly that come from different provinces, they get targeted by these criminals. Remember those girls when they get kidnapped no one knows that the child has been kidnapped because she comes from a different province and the family discover after a year or after six months when the daughter doesn’t come back home during holidays.”
Gauteng Police Commissioner Deliwe de Lange has appealed to the public to assist in the fight against crime. De lange says the police face many challenges in the province.
“There are people who still open false cases at the police stations. I would make an example whereby a person was involved in an accident during the night with his motor vehicle will come and report car hijacking at the police stations. Especially these youngsters they would go out with boyfriends when tomorrow morning they are supposed to come home they come and report false rapes, false kidnappings. Those are still the challenges.”
Nkosi-Malobane says to win the fight against crime, a serious demonstration of leadership among law enforcement agencies is required.
