Soldiers deployed on border protection as per the Operation Corona standing tasking were in action along five of South Africa’s land borders in May with contraband confiscation and stolen vehicle recovery the most notable successes.
All told unspecified contraband valued at more than R3 million was taken from smugglers attempting entry across the Botswana (R99 110), Mozambique (R209 414) and Zimbabwe (R2.78 million) borders, according to SA National Defence Force (SANDF) Joint Operations Division statistics. Cigarettes, liquor, counterfeit branded clothing and footwear as well as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals are more or less the standard items confiscated by soldiers and handed to SARS (SA Revenue Service) officials and the SA Police Service for disposal.
Vehicles stolen from South African owners are in demand by chop shops as well as illegal exporters and sellers in mostly Mozambique and Zimbabwe. These two countries top the May boards for stolen South African vehicle recoveries with Mozambique accounting for R4.29 million worth of recovered vehicles. R1.3 million worth of stolen vehicles were recovered along the KwaZulu-Natal border, with further recoveries along the Free State border (R400 000) and border with Limpopo (R40 500).
No-one is saying whether winter’s bite is affecting the number of people from neighbouring countries entering South Africa illegally with May’s figure of 60 apprehended by soldiers before being handed to police and Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials well down on April’s 461 and a long way off the 2 700 plus stopped in March.
As has become ops normal, soldiers deployed along the Lesotho border, whether with Eastern Cape, Free State or KwaZulu-Natal, again rounded up livestock for illegal grazing on South African pastureland. Joint Operations has it cattle valued at R478 400 were “found” by soldiers on the Free State/Lesotho border, while livestock worth R170 000 were seized in Mpumalanga.
Soldiers were also part of apprehending 14 known criminals on the Botswana, Eswatini/Mozambique, Lesotho (Free State), Mozambique and Zimbabwe borders with South Africa.
Drugs worth R806 000 were also seized by soldiers in May.
