Klerksdorp Record, Klerksdorp - North West traffic police rescued 21 foreigners from a human trafficking ring last week when they pulled over a suspicious looking white panel van entering Klerksdorp from Potchefstroom.
North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Wessels Morweng, applauded the officers for their vigilance and quick action on any suspicious movement. Upon investigation by the Eagles, they found 20 male Ethiopians and a female from Angola inside the vehicle. It was established that the South African owned vehicle was driven by an Ethiopian with a South African driver’s license.
He could only produce asylum seekers documents without any other official document.
“Upon requesting relevant documentation from people inside the van, only 5 Ethiopians had passports with only one valid. The remaining foreigners produced fake affidavits, stamped on July 29 2024.’’
According to the report, the vehicle was travelling from Pretoria to their final destination in Schweizer-Reneke.
The traffic officers escorted the vehicle to the Klerksdorp police station and registered cases against individuals while the Ethiopian driver was further charged for overloading of passengers and contravention of the Road Traffic Act.
MEC Morweng said these arrests should send a strong message to others who are still considering moving to this side but not adhering to the laws. Remember in my budget speech, I said we can’t surrender our country to lawlessness, this is one of the cases I am talking about.’’
Investigation is expected to continue with the involvement of Immigration officials from the Department of Home Affairs.
The SAPS Special Task Force rescued 90 undocumented Ethiopian nationals who were being kept against their will and under inhumane conditions in Sunnydale Ridge, Johannesburg over the weekend.
