Watch as chaos erupts in mid-city when cops nab illegals and products
The SAPS had to disperse the angry crowd with rubber bullets. The fire brigade rushed to the scene to extinguish the inferno. Rocks, bricks and potatoes were thrown at officials. The window of one of the vehicles parked inside the police parkade was hit by a brick.
MBOMBELA – Chaos reigned in the CDB on Friday as illegal vendors and foreign nationals set rubbish alight in protest against the police arresting them.
Ten people were apprehended. One of them was taken into custody for public violence after leading a violent protest, rebelling against the raid in which rocks and bricks were thrown at the police station.
The other nine were foreign nationals who could not produce valid passports. They appeared in court on Monday.
Mbombela SAPS, home affairs, customs, J&M, Nelspruit Community Policing Forum, Fofo Security and Mbombela’s new by-law enforcement agency performed a major operation to “clean up” the wetlands around Hoërskool Bergvlam, Town Lodge and the N4, between Rob Ferreira Hospital and the civic centre.
“We received information that people are living in the marshes,” said Mbombela SAPS spokesman Capt Dawie Pretorius. “We had reason to believe that those illegal immigrants commit a score of crimes in the city.”
The agencies busted people who could not produce a valid passport or were in possession of stolen goods.
No ties could be made to stolen items. However, the alleged illegal immigrants without documentation were taken to the police station for fingerprint identification. “It’s for exclusion purposes only,” said Pretorius. “We want to make sure they are not related to any crimes we have on record.”
After the wetland search, police cracked down on the Short Brown Street market, searching for unlawful products and illegal foreign vendors.
Stalls were searched and many had to pack up and leave. Truckloads of illicit products were confiscated and police found many illegal foreigners among the vendors. “Products of vendors whose stalls are not demarcated have been confiscated,” said Pretorius. “They will be able to retrieve their things after they have paid a fine,” he added.
The confiscated products and belongings are kept by Mbombela Local Municipality’s (MLM) by-law enforcement agency until the fines are paid.
MLM spokesman, Mr Joseph Ngala, said they supported the law-enforcement operation. “We have had meetings with the chairman of the street vendors’ committee and we served them notices more than a month ago.
They had sufficient time to respond. They knew they were trading unlawfully and in places that are not demarcated for trading. Some of them even traded in illegal products.”
When the police and the other security operators returned to the station they were met with furious protesters causing havoc in front of the police station in Henshall Street. To demonstrate their rage at the raid, vendors of the Short Brown Street market burnt tyres, dustbins and pallets in the street, which had to be barricaded when people set pallets alight in the middle of the road. They eventually tossed trolleys and full dustbins into the flames and threw large rocks and bricks at the police station.
The SAPS had to disperse the angry crowd with rubber bullets. The fire brigade rushed to the scene to extinguish the inferno. Rocks, bricks and potatoes were thrown at officials. The window of one of the vehicles parked inside the police parkade was hit by a brick.
Mbombela SAPS returned to Brown Street for a second raid on Monday afternoon, the outcome of which was unknown at the time of going to print.
The names of the accused had not been revealed at this time.
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