By Mothusi Thabane
The repeated high level meetings between Lesotho and South Africa are part of the two countries’ bid to curb cross border crime and ease tensions between citizens of both countries, Lesotho has warned.
Addressing a joint meeting between South Africa’s police minister Bheki Cele and himself, Lesotho’s minister of police was firm that both were committed to pursuing safety and justice beyond the countries’ borders.
This, he clearly explained was to remain “resolute that criminals will not run amok between Lesotho and South Africa without any repercussions.” He added that cross border criminal activities continue to compromise the security and integrity of both Lesotho and South Africa.
“Cross border crimes include human trafficking, stock theft, money laundering linked to cash in transit heists and illegal mining. We have encountered all forms of crimes, such as human trafficking and smuggling of persons, stock and car theft, smuggling of illegal goods including firearms…
“The safe, orderly and humane movement of persons between Lesotho and South Africa, remains at the core of our discussions, which are rooted in safety and security. We will be strengthening our measures to curb porous borders through the implementation of a one-stop border post,” he said.
Lephema said joint responsibility between Lesotho and South Africa on repatriations will be formalised soon.
“We are firm on the belief that an effective immigration system is key in the fight against cross border crimes. We have concluded to put a permit regime to close any loopholes that exist in the buying and selling of stock to limit stock theft. The issue of human trafficking has also been ventilated with the agreement to intensify multi -stakeholder approach to address issues of poverty,” he stressed.
Weighing in on these challenges, Senior Superintendent Mpiti Mopeli, of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service says cross border crimes cause a lot of conflicts and poverty on both sides.
“Usually, the people who are victimised end up raiding the nearest villages on the other side of the border even if the thieves come from farther afield. Most of the theft occurs along the northern districts of Leribe, Botha-Bothe and Mokhotlong,” he told theReporter this week.
“There are syndicates on both sides. Farmers on the South African side are also involved. Basotho steal cattle from Lesotho and hide the animals in South African farms for cooling down and then brand them with the labels of the farmer and take them further into South Africa for auctions. Most of the auctions happen in Vanderbijltpark.”
He said in most cases the murderers who flee into Sough Africa or Lesotho are hired assassins and famo music gangsters who are hitmen. Most of them hide in the informal settlements and illegal mines.
“It’s hard to find them as most of them give false identities,” he said.
Mopeli said there is a syndicate involved in ATM bombings in South Africa. He said the syndicate is made up of Basotho and other South Africans, suggesting that they change mode of operations and form as they recruit new criminals all the time.
This goes together with the cash in transit heists, he added, noting that illegal miners usually cross the border with large sums of money usually in excess of M200 000.
It is hoped that in the end the agreements entered into and the push towards free movement with less administrative hurdles will benefit both neighbouring countries.
The Maseru border post seems to be a gateway where visitors from South Africa are preyed on by thugs under the pretext that they would assist them to cross into the kingdom despite expiry of their travel documents, this publication has learned.
A member of an organisation called Beautiful Dream Society at the border post claimed that people crossing the border from South Africa to Lesotho become “prey to thugs who promise to help them cross the border if their passports are expired.”
But he remarked: “Sometimes they are either robbed or raped by those thugs.”
“I work directly with prevention of human trafficking. We often get cases of high risk people. We look at their places of origin as there are those areas which are notorious for this illegal activity. When they are preyed on, they do not know the places of their destiny and we inform them of such places which are hotspots for human trafficking and human abuses,” he said.
He added that most of the trafficked people are aged between 18 and 25 years. According to him, most of them are girls who are from poor families and can barely provide for their households.
