Johannesburg - The quest to bring law and order in the City of Joburg was in full force on Monday morning when police descended into the CBD in search of those selling counterfeit goods.
From Delvers Streets to Small streets - which are very popular with shoppers - officers confiscated the alleged fake goods and also made a few arrests.
The operation is part of #BuyaMthetho whose aim is to bring law order in the city which many complain that it has deteriorated.
Last week the operation nearly turned deadly when foreigners attacked the police, however, the city's Lucky Sindane said that kind of behaviour would not be allowed.
"We won't back down, we wont let these people prevent us in doing our job," he said.
Sindane said the problem with counterfeit good was that those bringing they were bringing the fake goods into the country and not paying tax for it.
InnerCity Operation by @JoburgMPD Impounding counterfeit goods at Delvers and Pritchard
Bringing back #LawandOrder in the @CityofJoburgZA #SaferJoburg pic.twitter.com/w5V3fAL0od
— AsktheChiefJMPD (@AsktheChiefJMPD) November 26, 2018
Johannesburg Metro Police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar confirmed to The Star that they, together with the South African Police Services (SAPS) seized close to a million counterfeit goods in in shops belonging to foreign nationals.
“We want order in the city. We want to clean the city. We found close to a million counterfeit fake goods in most of the shops that we raided. This is a massive operation,” he said.
Minnaar said the counterfeit goods included footwear and clothes of well known brands. The raids happened on the shops on Lilian Ngoyi Street.
He also confirmed that they were attacked by foreign nationals after they raided one of their shops last week.
“We joined forces with the SAPS to bring order in the city. Police went there to see if the foreign nationals are compliant with trading regulations. Foreign nationals attacked the police. Today we went in huge numbers,” he said.
Minnaar said the raid started at 10 am on Monday.