By Samkelo Biyela and Sphumelele Khumalo
The KwaZulu-Natal SAPS made 120 arrests in a raid in Point, in Durban, on Tuesday.
The SAPS was conducting a raid, targeting six poorly maintained and potentially hijacked buildings in Point, in South Beach.
General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KZN SAPS commissioner, expressed satisfaction about the success of their operation.
“We managed to arrest over 120 people that we have found in all these places we have been targeting today. Most of these people are foreign nationals and they are not documented to reside in South Africa,” he said.
Lizwi Zondile, a resident in one of the buildings, expressed her happiness with the raid. She cited minimal maintenance and safety issues as realities that they encounter every day. “The building is not well maintained and we have been promised that there will be maintenance, but we still suffer the same conditions. We stay because there is nowhere else to go because the rent is affordable here.”
Zondile added: “We are not safe in this building. We have to lock
our doors all the time to avoid being robbed or worse.”
Thami Ntuli, the KZN premier, outlined the primary objectives behind the sting operation, saying they were intent on cracking down on the high crime rate and illegal immigration.
“Our intention is to revive and rejuvenate eThekwini. Today, we targeted six
buildings to ensure that we fight crime, because there are a lot of criminal activities that
are taking place, (including) undocumented foreigners who live in these buildings,” he said.
The Ntuli added that various illegal items were found in one building.
“Over 75 arrests have been made in this building, with more than $4 million in
counterfeit money found, along with drugs such as cocaine, crystal meth, weapons and illegal immigrants.”
The operation has earned the KZN Police high praise in public, with many South Africans advocating for more such raids to be undertaken in more cities around South Africa.
