DURBAN - President Jacob Zuma on Thursday announced that R92 million had been allocated to fight crime in Manguzi, a rural town in KwaZulu-Natal on the edge of Mozambique, infamous for cross-border crime, including hijacking and stealing of vehicles.
Addressing thousands of people at the main Freedom Day event in Manguzi on Thursday, Zuma said the area was also facing challenges of house break-ins, cash-in-transit heists, stock theft “and other crimes that make life difficult for our people”.
Zuma was accompanied by his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa. He visited the area last month and also inspected part of the fence where stolen vehicles were driven into Mozambique.
“We are addressing the problem without impacting negatively on the warm relationship between the people of Mozambique and the people of South Africa,” the president said.
“A lot of work is being done to attend to the issues. Last month, I undertook a visit because of the aggressive cross-border crime,” he said.
Zuma said he had assigned several departments to work on the problem.
He said when he visited the police station he found it dilapidated and unable to handle the crime in the area.
He said he found the same at stations in Nyanga in Cape Town and Soshanguve in Pretoria.
“This means we have to improve capacity at police stations.
“The government has allocated R92m for the renovation of the Manguzi police station.
“The KwaZulu-Natal province has supplied the station with vehicles to enable faster responses when crimes are being committed,” he said.
He received huge applause when he announced the station would fill vacant posts.
He said the SA National Defence Force had started to collaborate in securing the border “where criminals were taking advantage of this lack of co-ordination”.
“The SANDF had increased deployments along the border. Law enforcement would continue to do its best to prevent the cross-border car theft with the support of the community.”
He said the Department of International Relations and the security cluster, together with their Mozambique counterparts, had agreed to work together in dealing with crime and illegal migration issues.
Zuma also said the government was working tirelessly against racism through the Department of Justice which was finalising a national action plan “against racism and related intolerances”.
“We have also recently published the prevention and combating of hate crimes bill.
“Once it becomes law it will criminalise several discriminations based on race, gender, sexual orientation and religion.”