Johannesburg - Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza has been asked to act against the Malawi high commissioner for his alleged interference in the arrest of Malawian nationals accused of human trafficking and illegal immigration.
The complaint came after the arrest of 167 Malawians who were allegedly being trafficked to various parts of South Africa.
The 167 were charged with being in the country illegally while the alleged couriers were charged with human trafficking.
The first major arrest involving the Malawians happened on July 24 in Rustenburg, three years after President Jacob Zuma signed into law the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act on July 29, 2013.
Police in Boitekong, outside Rustenburg, spotted a truck driving at high speed and gave chase.
On investigation and during the search 57 undocumented children aged between 11 and 21 years were found in the back of a delivery truck, which was without windows.
Eighteen of the children were girls and 39 of them boys.
They were transported by three adults, all of them Malawian nationals.
The other arrest of 69 human-trafficking victims took place in Limpopo on July 28 and the latest arrest of 37 occurred in Welkom in the Free State on Thursday.
In all these incidents, all of those taken into custody are Malawian citizens.
The Sunday Independent has been reliably informed that the high commissioner paid a visit to one of the centres in the North West where the human-trafficking victims were being detained.
The commissioner allegedly made the arrangement through the Department of Social Development. However, the Hawks were alerted before they rushed to the centre.
The main complaint from the police was that the commissioner was addressing “his people in his own language which made it impossible for the local police to follow and understand the discussion”.
The police also alleged that the commissioner wanted the children to be repatriated to Malawi.
The local authorities, however, refused this request.
“I hope they won’t jeopardise our investigation as we want a conviction,” the letter stated.
On Saturday, Ntlemeza confirmed that some of his officers had lodged complaints about the alleged improper conduct of the Malawian authorities.
Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said: “It's true there are concerns that were raised with the national head of the Hawks, Lieutenant-General Mthandazo Ntlemeza.
“It relates to the visits by the Malawian officials to the suspects and them insisting on speaking in their home language.
“We have no problem with their visits, however, they give us a serious challenge since we are not conversant with their language and the messages they are relaying to the suspects.
“Also, we do not have interpreters readily available. The national head has committed to engage the right authorities through the office of the minister of police.
“These cases are very serious since we believe this is the work of a syndicate selling immigrants for their own selfish gains.”
Mulaudzi said the Hawks were working hard to identify the source and together with the SAPS they were hoping for a breakthrough.
The high commissioner's liaison office did not respond to calls for comment. The Malawi High Commission also did not respond to various e-mails sent to them.
The Hawks have also confirmed that the latest batch of Malawians to be arrested would be appearing in the Theunissen Magistrate’s Court tomorrow.
The suspects, aged between 17 and 37 years of age, were arrested after members of the police were alerted to a suspicious van parked which had broken down on the side of the road, near Theunissen, on Thursday.
Mulaudzi said police found two men sitting inside the van as well as a group of nine men and two women sitting next to the road. The remaining suspects were found hiding under a bridge nearby.
Subsequent investigations revealed that none of the immigrants had any valid documents to be in the country.
“It was (also) revealed the group were going to be sold for cheap labour in the Eastern Cape. Allegations are that they were on their way to Port Elizabeth to look for jobs,” Mulaudzi said.
Sunday Independent