Cape Town - Hawks officers have swooped on two houses in a Gauteng suburb in an anti-terrorism operation that led to the arrests of two for allegedly having explosive devices.
There were rumours one of the homes raided belonged to a religious leader, but this could not be confirmed by Weekend Argus on Saturday.
Items including CDs, documents and even a matric pupil’s homework books were seized during on Saturday’s raids.
The two houses in Azaadville, a suburb on the West Rand, were the focus of the search operations.
Locals have denied people in the suburb support Islamic State.
Late on Saturday Yousha Tayob, representing the two affected families, said the Hawks warrants “indicated it was all terror-related”.
The Hawks had seized “whatever they presumed to be inflammatory terrorist items”.
Azaadville was in the news previously as the place where a group intent on joining the Islamic State had travelled.
The reports, which surfaced two years ago, were never confirmed by the government.
On Saturday, while the Azaadville houses were being searched, a third house in Florida, Gauteng, was also raided.
The SABC reported a witness at the Florida scene saw snipers stationed on his rooftop, aiming at a house as it was being searched.On Saturday Tayob said he was aware of the Florida raid, but he addressed only the raids in Azaadville.
Residents in the area took to social media, posting photographs of Hawks vehicles parked outside houses. Police tape cordoned off the areas. Tayob said no arrests had been made at one of the houses, but that Hawks officers seized electronic equipment, books and CDs.
At the second house, a couple was arrested.
He expected they would appear in a court tomorrow.
“They face a Schedule 6 offence - the possession of explosives,” he said.
Schedule 6 offences were regarded as extremely serious.
Tayob said the couple faced the possession of explosives charge because a stun grenade and rounds of ammunition were found. However, he said the man had obtained the stun grenade when he was a member of the local community police forum. He said the ammunition had been used for hunting, with legal firearms.
He said the Hawks had carried out the Azaadville raids calmly. “But they used some force to get in (to the homes).”
On Saturday the Hawks were tight-lipped about their activities in the suburb.
National Hawks spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi said the matter was “very sensitive”.
“We are not at liberty to comment at this stage,” he said.
State Security Agency spokesman Brian Dube said police would issue a statement in the afternoon on Saturday, but this did not happen.
Azaadville Neighbourhood Watch chairman Ismail Nana told Weekend Argus he was not sure why the raids had been conducted.
As far as he knew, no residents were involved in terrorist groups, particularly IS.
“No one in the area would be, or wants to be involved with IS. No one supports it or wants to support it,” he said.
An Azaadville neighbourhood watch member told Weekend Argus the raids were carried out with precision.
“No one was allowed access near the two premises or to the people involved,” the member said.
In November 2014 Azaadville made the news when Weekend Argus reported about 140 South Africans had joined IS, and that at least three had been killed.
Iraq’s ambassador to South Africa, Dr Hushaim al-Alawi, was reported as saying one of the three dead, aged 24, had been recruited by a group in Gauteng, and had travelled with a group of young men from Azaadville and Lenasia.
Weekend Argus