Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya,Beitbridge Bureau
BORDER security officials have seized seven inflatable boats, which were being used to smuggle goods between South Africa and Zimbabwe at the Limpopo River.
Smugglers are illegally shipping mostly cigarettes, explosives and minerals to South Africa, while counterfeit goods, guns, mbanje (dagga) and genetically modified foods are allegedly being channelled into Zimbabwe via the more than 200 illegal crossing points along the same river.
Zimbabwean and South African security authorities have evenly deployed manpower along the boundary where they periodically conduct joint operations.
Limpopo police spokesperson Colonel Malasela Ledwaba said the boats were seized on Tuesday during the execution of ‘Disruptive Operation Vala Umgodi’.
“The multidisciplinary teams comprising the SAPS Public Order Police, Tactical Response Team, National Intervention Unit and members of the SANDF in various districts have arrested twenty-six suspects for various offenses such as illegal mining, possession of illicit cigarettes, as well as contravention of immigration act on Tuesday during their tour of the Disruptive Operation Vala Umgodi,” he said.
On the Zimbabwean side security teams continue to destroy wood made rafts and make shift bridges along the Limpopo River and recover an assortment of goods going to either country.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter