An operation that has been newly formed by EMPD officers in collaboration with the SAPS officers raided the Kempton Park CBD area on Friday, 16 April 2021.
The Mayor of Ekurhuleni, Mzwandile Masina was also present as well as the Chief of Police, Isaac Mapiyeye.
The operation made a few stops at the CBD in Kempton Park and arrests were made. During the operation, arrests for drunk driving were 13, there were 4 arrests for drugs, 76 arrests for undocumented immigrants and 10 vehicles were impounded. The stop and search for vehicles and pedestrians were 625 in total, taverns and shops which were searched are 39, trading without liquor licenses arrests were 2 and 30 black bags of sachets containing K20 whisky were also confiscated.
Fraudulent government documents such as ID’s, driver’s licenses, motor vehicle licenses and license discs as well as fake bank notes were found during the search. “All the internal fake documents that were found needed to be thoroughly investigated so arrests can be made,” said the mayor, Masina.
Licenses that were found will be assessed genuinely first before assuming that there’s a collaboration between the alleged fraudsters and workers in the Licensing department. “Consistency in these kinds of programs means we’re driving away criminal activities. This is an EMPD led program, but they won’t do this alone. This is an integrated program, we’ll need other relevant departments because we find buildings whose owners can’t be traced therefore we need city planning to verify such. We have illegal immigrants and we’ll need immigration officials to verify these things as well,” added Chief of Police, Isaac Mapiyeye.
Although the #OperationKhurhula is a localised version of the provincial campaign called Okae Molao is set on targeting areas that are hotspots for high levels of crime and the operation is determined to ensure that these places are raided.
By Palesa Ndinisa & Vusumuzi Makwakwa
