POLICE Minister Bheki Cele has called for better technology at the country’s borders as he said manual procedures may inadvertently benefit criminal elements.
Cele was speaking during a visit to the Kosi Bay border post with Mozambique as part of an evaluation of the SAPS safer festive season operations.
He was accompanied by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi as well as other senior managers from the SAPS and the Border Management Authority.
Police said Cele was briefed by a task team deployed to the uMhlabuyalingana area to prevent cross-border crimes, including vehicle smuggling.
“The report from the team was encouraging, and the measures put in place to ensure effective policing during the festive season have borne the desired fruits thus far.”
Cele said the delegation was satisfied that all seemed to be in order. However, he added that there was room for improvement.
“One thing that we agree with officials on, the premier, myself and police, is that we have to improve on technology. Dealing with everything manually might be letting some crime (criminals) go through. So I think that we will make sure that as we sit down as the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster plus other structures we will recommend that technology must play a big part in working at the borders to stop crime,” said Cele.
The premier said the provincial government was grateful that the minister also visited the border.
“This is the area where illegal things are coming in, or they are going out. We really want to applaud the fact that the JCPS cluster has got involved so that we can really rid our country of any illegal illicit goods, or any criminal elements,” said Dube-Ncube.
Earlier this year, both Cele and the premier attended the funeral of the chairperson of Umhlabuyalingana Society Against Crime (USAC), Judah Mthethwa, who was killed.
Cele recalled how residents had been angered by Mthethwa’s murder.
“Everybody knows that we had huge trouble here with crime and we had to make a very special deployment,” he said. “We’re here just for oversight of how much ground has been covered and we are quite satisfied that as the government we have really worked very well,” he said.
Dube-Ncube called for the community to continue to work with the police.
“It cannot be done without the co-operation of the communities. We know that criminals live with us and as a result, communities are needed to be part of the policing of their areas, of their families and also of their communities and we will continue from here,” said the premier.
