In South Africa, all roads lead to Mpumalanga for illegal immigrants.
Scores of migrants move unhindered on a daily basis from Mozambique over the wide open and unguarded border around the Lebombo Border Post. Others use aircraft to OR Tambo International Airport, then using public transport after arriving straight to Mbombela, Mpumalanga, Lowvelder reports.
According to law enforcers and intelligence sources, the well-established Pakistani underground networks of the terrorist organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba, a radical body regarded in Pakistan as a Sunni supremacist group at war with the minority Shia Muslim grouping in the country, facilitates the safe passage for new arrivals in South Africa.
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“It is an extremely well-oiled network,” Lowvelder was told. “From the facilitators assisting all the new arrivals, to the network of lawyers on call 24 hours when arrests take place, to the ‘right’ state prosecutors to ‘handle’ such cases.”
On arrival, migrants are picked up and taken to safe houses in Mbombela or Komatipoort, Mpumalanga, Lowvelder was told. There are also safe houses in Naas, on the road between Komatipoort and the Swaziland border.
A well-placed source described how the Managa road becomes a beehive of activity between 17:30 to 19:30 as taxis and other means of transport do business with illegal immigrants. They wait in the bushes for the scheduled pick-up of new border crossers to the safe houses in Naas. The source added that many of them are former Somali soldiers.
The identities of two local Pakistanis who act as the go-between for the migrants and corrupt immigration officials, are known to the newspaper. In Mbombela, the “facilitator” operates from the Nedbank Centre and in Komatipoort near the Total Garage.
The identities of the immigration officials are also known. One of them has been on holiday overseas on more than one occasion.
It is believed that since a corrupt network of home affairs officials was exposed a few years ago, the focus has turned to Mpumalanga as a safe haven to buy illegal documents.
Lowvelder approached Doris Chiloane, home affairs spokesman for comment on the allegations. None were forthcoming at the time of going to press.