In what appears to be a quiet month for SA Army soldiers deployed on border safeguarding duties, just 64 undocumented persons were prevented by the military from continuing their illegal journeys into South Africa in August.
They were intercepted by soldiers patrolling the Botswana (four), Eswatini (one), Lesotho (35), Mozambique (five) and Zimbabwe (19) land borders. This is far below the 456 illegal immigrants handed to Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and SA Police Service (SAPS) officials and officers in July and nearer the 91 intercepted in June and 60 in May.
In similar vein, there were two narcotics busts by soldiers – along the Mozambican borders with Eswatini and Mpumalanga – valued in total at R759 360 in August. A month previously the border safeguarding tasking Operation Corona yielded R2.3 million worth of narcotics, and R1.4 million worth in June.
The value of contraband, again not specified by the Joint Operations Division of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), confiscated by soldiers in August was R25 600 (Mpumalanga/Mozambique). In July the contraband haul by soldiers was valued at over R2 million originating in Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and R1 million in June.
A similar downward trend – value-wise as numbers are not provided – comes from stolen vehicles recovered in the eighth month of the year. The Limpopo/Zimbabwe border reported the highest value at R1.3 million, followed by KwaZulu-Natal (R510 000) and Free State/Lesotho (40 000). This is well down on the R8 million plus worth of vehicles recovered in July and R5.7 million worth in June.
No livestock was reported recovered in August by the Joint Operations Division of the SANDF, nor were any firearms seized. In July, livestock valued close to R400 000 was impounded after found on South African pasture land adjacent to Lesotho, and 27 criminals were arrested.
