A total of 10 stolen vehicles have been recovered while on
the brink of crossing into Zimbabwe from South Africa in the past three months.
Police in Limpopo have attributed the success in stopping
car theft syndicates on their tracks to the hard work by their members. On
Tuesday, a suspected stolen earthmover was among the two vehicles that were
recovered during an operation by the police.
The intelligence-driven joint operation which yielded
positive results, known as “Valamadi”, was conducted in the Makhado cluster.
Police spokesperson Col Moatshe Ngoepe said that during the
operation, a 40-year-old man was arrested in possession of a suspected stolen
earthmover, colloquially also known as a caterpillar.
He said the man was apprehended while trying to acquire a
clearance certificate without proper documentations and had failed to account
for the origin of the heavy-duty construction vehicle and its owner. He said
the arrest was made at the Beitbridge border post while the suspect was trying
to cross from South Africa to Zimbabwe.
According to Ngoepe, the police were working hard to crack
the syndicates responsible for smuggling stolen cars into Zimbabwe.
“We are doing everything we can to deal with incidents of
smuggling stolen cars from this country into Zimbabwe, perhaps also into other
countries further north,” he said.
“Preliminary investigations have revealed that the
caterpillar was reported stolen in the Apel policing area outside Lebowakgomo,”
Ngoepe said.
He said the suspect would appear in the Musina magistrate's
court “soon”.
The operation, he added, also recovered a Ford Ranger
bakkie abandoned in the bushes along the South African and Zimbabwean
borderline outside Musina. Ngoepe said preliminary investigations had revealed
that the bakkie was reported stolen at GaRankuwa in Pretoria and that no arrest
had been made in this matter.
Ngoepe said some of the members of the syndicates would
push the cars across the Limpopo River, “others being transported through the
bushes with donkey carts, to ensure that they crossed over to that
country". Sowetan
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