adminThe officer commanding police in Beitbridge District, Chief Superintendent Lawrence Chinhengo, said 47 were arrested on the Zimbabwean side while 35 were caught in South Africa during which knives, iron bars, knobkerries and machetes were recovered from them.
“We arrested 82 suspects during a joint border operation with South African police. Our South African counterparts rounded up 35 suspects on their side of the Limpopo River while on ours we arrested 47 suspects who were mainly operating along the river and surrounding areas,” he said.
The criminal hot spots include Dulibadzimu Gorge, Mujuta Farm and the bushy area near the Limpopo River spillway.
Chief Supt Chinhengo said the exercise followed concerns raised by local residents over a surge in criminal activities around the border town.
He also attributed crime to an increase in deportations of ex-convicts from South Africa.
“We continue to record a sharp increase in the number of robberies and unlawful entry cases in Beitbridge. Some of the people deported from South Africa through Beitbridge Border Post are ex-convicts and we would like to believe that some of them resort to crime,” said Chief Supt Chinhengo.
He said last week they received 20 ex-convicts who were deported from South Africa. On being deported from South Africa, returnees are taken to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reception and support centre where they are offered overnight accommodation, medication, food and transport to proceed to their homes.
However, a majority of the deportees turn down any form of assistance from IOM and those who opt to go home using their own means are released and most of them resort to crossing back to South Africa through undesignated entry points along the crocodile infested Limpopo River.
It is, however, believed that others resort to criminal activities.
Among the arrested suspects, three of them are serial armed robbers linked to a series of crimes committed in Masvingo Province.
Two of them were on the police wanted list for robberies and unlawful entry cases committed in Beitbridge. “We would like to urge members of the public and victims to come and assist us in identifying the suspects most of whom are linked to a spate of crimes,” Chief Supt Chinhengo said.
He said the ongoing operation dubbed “Peace in Beitbridge” would continue for an indefinite period.
“We are out in full force to restore sanity along the border and we will continue with the exercise for as long as there are criminals operating along the borderline,” he said.
The suspects mainly targeted border jumpers and smugglers using undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River.
“We continue to warn people against using undesignated entry points to cross the border as they risk their lives and prosecution,” said Chief Supt Chinhengo.
Several border jumpers and smugglers have fallen prey to organised syndicates operating along the crocodile-infested Limpopo River.
According to a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) report, about 16 border jumpers are raped and robbed every month as they illegally cross into the neighbouring country through undesignated entry points.
MSF, which is also known as Doctors Without Borders, has established Sexual and Gender Based Violence Clinics in the border towns of Musina and Beitbridge where non-governmental organisations are mainly targeting in-transit truck drivers, commercial sex workers and sexually abused irregular migrants seeking STI treatment, trauma counselling, tetanus, HIV and Aids tests and anti-retroviral post exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
Online Reporter