Crime on the rocks on SA-Moz border

THE fleeing driver of a stolen double- cab bakkie tried for hours to jump the border into Mozambique.

With the SANDF closing in on the hijacked car, the driver got desperate.

He floored the accelerator and aimed the vehicle at the cattle fence that divides the two countries, but never made it.

The double-cab hit a line of boulders, and was trapped on a large rock. The driver escaped, but the recovered vehicle is the latest success of Operation Ilitshe.

This is the SANDF’s cheap, innovative and low-tech solution to block hijackers escaping, while they wait for an ambitious R120 million government project to barricade the 80km border with a concrete barrier. The project is still on the table, but faces financial stumbling blocks.

Syndicates target luxury vehicles and 4x4s, which they hijack or steal in South Africa, and drive over the border into Mozambique. But authorities say the simple line of boulders along sections of the fence has reduced the number of stolen vehicles crossing the border by a fifth.

In August, the KwaZuluNatal Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison announced plans to seal the border with New Jersey concrete blocks in a bid to stop the rampant vehicle theft.

This week, Sipho Khumalo, a department spokesman, said the government was forging ahead with its plan to seal the borders with New Jersey barriers.

The precast, steel reinforced concrete barriers are typically used along highways to separate traffic or to protect pedestrians or workers during construction.

Khumalo said the government was exploring ways to make use of secondhand concrete blocks to save money. He said the project had been prioritised and the KZN Treasury was still searching for the money required because budgets were tight across all departments.

“The government is in the process of raising those funds, the project is very much on track,” said Khumalo yesterday.

Khumalo said the SAPS Anti-Theft Vehicle Unit had been re-deployed to the border and they were working with the SANDF as part of Operation Ilitshe.

This week Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, Hawks head Major General Berning Ntlemeza and the acting KwaZuluNatal provincial commissioner, Bhekinkosi Langa, visited Jozini to lead an anti-crime campaign.

Nhleko said 200 police officers from specialised units in stock theft, crime intelligence, commercial crime and public order police had been deployed to Jozini, Hlabisa, Mkhuze and Sodwana Bay.

“For a while now our people… have been calling for sterner police action to help address various acts of criminality that threaten their livelihoods and sense of order and peace.

“I have been in the area several times this year and I am confident we are making a difference in the quest to free all citizens from the scourge of crime,” he said.

PICTURES: SHAUN SMILLIE A bid to slip this Isuzu double-cab across the border was foiled.