SA police intercept 11 vehicles carrying 133 undoc...

SA police intercept 11 vehicles carrying 133 undocumented travellers from Zimbabwe

Zim Now Writer

South African police has intercepted a convoy of motor vehicles which were travelling from Zimbabwe and heading to Polokwane with over 100 undocumented foreigners including 73 minors.

**The intercepted travellers and the impounded vehicles**

“The police operationalised on information received and managed to locate 11 motor vehicles travelling along the N1 North bypass gateway, outside Polokwane,” said Limpopo police spokesperson, Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba.

“The vehicles were tactically approached, stopped and searched and found to be overloaded with 73 underage children between six months and 17 years, (and) 60 adults,” he said.

Mashaba said the whole lot was undocumented.

“The passengers could not provide the legal documentations for being in the country and were placed under arrest on the spot,” he said.

Police confiscated 11 vehicles comprising eight Toyota Quantums, two Toyota Hilux GD6 double cab bakkies with canopies, and a Toyota Fortuner.

Mashaba said the police and other stakeholders comprising the Department of Home Affairs and Department of Social Development have been summoned to process the undocumented foreign nationals as investigations continue.

Two Zimbabwean nationals Tafadzwa Nakakurwa, 46, and Beulla Maruza, 41, appeared in the Kimberley District Court on Thursday after being arrested over human trafficking charges in South Africa last week for attempting transporting 14 children to Cape Town.

In another case 443 children were returned to Zimbabwe after being intercepted in South Africa and being discovered to be undocumented and or traveling without accompanying guardians.

Soon after the incident the Zimbabwean government said the children were going to join their parents in South Africa for the festive season and most had since been reunited with their Zimbabwe based families.