Vehicle Theft: South Africa is a smuggler’s paradise for stolen cars
With vehicle theft being a major problem in South Africa, thousands of stolen cars are taken across the border to neighbouring countries-– this is the hellish fate awaiting South African cars.
What sort of fate awaits the endless supply of stolen South African cars? Unbelievably, according to vehicle theft and hijacking crime stats for the previous quarter, there are anywhere between 60 and 100 cars stolen per day, says Business Link. Car security firm Tracker puts the value of stolen South African cars at R5 billion annually. But where on earth do they go? Not all stolen South African cars just vanish into thin air, surely?
Once stolen, the majority of these 5 488 cars (as recorded in the last three months), end up over the border in neighbouring countries. According to TopAuto, a small village called eDludluma in Mpumalanga (formerly Albertsnek), on the border with Mozambique, is the perfect rural village to act as a conduit for stolen South African cars.
But it’s by no means the only one. Daily Maverick previously reported that villages like Manguzi, Jozini and Pongola, as well as surrounding areas of Umkhanyakude, are also under siege from brazen cross-border crime syndicates. Stolen South African cars, mostly originating from Gauteng, are spirited away to any of these hotspots near the poorly secured Mozambique border.
SAD FATE FOR STOLEN SOUTH AFRICAN CARS
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) successfully recovered some 20 stolen vehicles in the village of Manguzi. And SAPS has seized 30 stolen cars so far in 2024, with 13 arrests made (some of them foreign nationals). But that’s a mere drop in the ocean against a highly skilled and heavily armed criminal syndicate.
People living in these border villages say they’re being taken over and are defenceless against the criminals. And yet, government, law enforcement agencies and private security companies seem to be doing nothing. This prompts some criminal experts to think the syndicates are paying off corrupt officials to look the other way.
Stolen South African cars are either vaulted over the border with crude ramps (with mixed results as pictured above) or driven through weaker parts of the border fence. These are cut open without detection days before the move. More often than not, the vehicles need to have good ground clearance and 4×4 capability to complete the journey, hence the preference for bakkies and large SUVs.
SMUGGLER’S PARADISE
Speaking to the SABC, villagers say towns like eDludluma are turning into a “smugglers’ paradise”. If cars can be smuggled through, it’s even easier to smuggle cigarettes, other contraband and even people. “When we talk about cars being moved, there are so many you can’t even count them,” said one villager. Youngsters accustomed to the life are being recruited by syndicates because prospects for employment are so low and the money and excitement of car smuggling appears tempting.
According to IOL, quoting crime expert Calvin Rafadi, there is often an ‘existing order’ for the stolen South African cars that make it over the border. Large SUVs, 4x4s and bakkies are exchanged for foreign currency like US dollars, Euros, and even minerals like gold and cobalt. Frustratingly, there is precious little cross-border cooperation with SAPS and Mozambique police, despite all we know about car smuggling.
WHAT IS SAPS DOING ABOUT IT?
Mpumalanga SAPS spokesperson Donald Mdhluli says, that despite their successes, there is a lot of work to be done. Mdhluli explains these stolen South African cars are moved around by a sizeable syndicate. Some first steal the cars. Then they are hidden for some time before being moved across the border at an opportune time when they won’t be detected. Crime reporter Yusuf Abramjee says, in his experience, that once your vehicle exits the borders of South Africa, the chances of recovering it, even if it is found, are very slim indeed.
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