BuaNews (Tshwane)
Proffesor Ndawonde
19 November 2008
Lebombo — High-tech security devices are to be used by officials at the Lebombo Border Post to search for unauthorised goods being smuggled into South Africa.
Mpumalanga Safety and Security MEC, Siphosezwe Masango said the devices were urgently needed in order to render the border post more effective during the festive season when well-over 160 000 people are expected to cross the border daily.
The MEC was speaking after visiting the port of entry from Mozambique on Tuesday to inspect the border gate and compliment the police for their recent achievements busting vehicle theft syndicates and discovering other illegal goods intended for both the Mozambican and South African markets.
"There is a need for alertness especially in our borders," said MEC Masango, who explained that insurance companies were losing millions of Rands as in a scam involving people who are struggling to pay their monthly installments give their cars to criminal syndicates to take across the border.
Once across the border, they report the vehicle as stolen.
Authorities at the gate told MEC Masango that although police were winning the battle against car theft, they often missed the unauthorised goods which were being smuggled into the country hidden in bags, beds and boats.
The department has reported that while more attention was focussed on big vehicles such as trucks, trailers, and busses, other unauthorised goods crossed the border because a "human eye cannot see everything" that is hidden.
At the weekend police seized eight vehicles worth R1.8 million that had not been reported as stolen.
The MEC said people who smuggled cheap, illegal and poisonous cigarettes, drugs and second hand clothes from other countries such as Mozambique and Zambia into the country were weakening the country's economy.
"This undermines and compromises our economy and subject people's lives into danger. Second hand clothes are also a serious problem at the border as hawkers from South Africa bring in these items from Mozambique," Mr Masango added.
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