South African Minister receives Mozambican counterpart to discuss border violence – Lusa report

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South African Minister receives Mozambican counterpart to discuss border violence – Lusa report

3:03 CAT | 09 Feb 2023

Photo: Ministério do Interior-MINT

The South African Minister of Police Bheki Cele, together with senior officials from the South African Police (SAPS), have discussed he situation on the SA border with our country with the Mozambican Minister of the Interior and her delegation, in Cape Town, Lusa news agency reports.

“The Minister of Police and the Deputy Minister of Police met today with the Minister of the Interior of Mozambique and her delegation. Senior SAPS officers led by the national commissioner were also present to discuss cross-border crimes, especially the situation in the district of Umkhanyakude in KZN [KwaZulu-Natal],” the spokesperson for SAPS national command, Athlenda Mathe, told Lusa.

A spokesperson for Police Minister Bheki Cele declined, however, to reveal details of the strategy agreed between the two countries at the meeting with the Mozambican ministerial delegation, led by the Minister of the Interior, Arsénia Massingue.

“The bilateral meeting between the two countries focused on regional cooperation and ways to improve relations and security in the region took place in Cape Town today. We will not go into details about the merits of the discussion,” stressed Lirandzu Themba , adding that “the content of the closed-door meeting will not be disclosed”.

READ: Mozambique: Minister of the Interior’s visit to South Africa – MINT press release

The northern part of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, on the border with Mozambique, has been plagued by insecurity attributed to organized crime syndicates, which, according to the South African police, take refuge in neighbouring Mozambique.

Local communities accuse the South African police and government of inaction against “heavily armed” groups in Umkhanyakude district, where they are robbed, kidnapped and even killed, according to reports in the South African press.

The area is described as a “gangster’s paradise”, exemplified by the trafficking of stolen vehicles from South Africa into Mozambique, drug trafficking in cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine, and the smuggling of counterfeit cigarettes and other goods across the border.

SAPS National Commissioner Fannie Masemola visited local communities in late January following an incident where at least six vehicles, including a tourist bus from Mozambique and a goods vehicle, were burned on the R22 road between Hluhluwe and Mbazwana.

READ: Ponta do Ouro-Durban route: Risk of attack on travellers remains high, despite ‘truce’ – Domingo

Xolani Zikhali, leader of the Umkhanyakude district community policing forum, told the South African press this week that “even if the victims go to Mozambique to look for their [stolen] vehicles, they find the cars, their efforts to return them are thwarted by the Mozambican authorities”.

“When Mozambican cars pass by here, they are stopped and searched. Those suspected of belonging to criminal groups are attacked and set on fire,” Keneth Ngubane, a resident of Mseleni, told the press.

“The problem here is that the Mozambican officials are working with the [crime] syndicate, and the syndicate members know that once they’re across the border, we can’t touch them. So they come to South Africa at night, and return to Mozambique before sunrise,” said a South African police officer in Manguzi.

The Mozambican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Verónica Macamo, last week called the situation caused by attacks on Mozambican vehicles in the region “complicated”, assuring that efforts between the governments of the two countries to end insecurity were uinderway.

Some Mozambican passenger carriers offering connections between Maputo and the port city of Durban in South Africa have suspended activity following reports of attacks and robberies on a South African road from the Ponta do Ouro border post at the northern end of Umkhanyakude district.

Source: Lusa