SA GOVT TRACKS FOREIGN - REGISTERED CARS

MBABANE - Talk about tightening the screws! Driving a car into neighbouring South Africa with the sole intention of committing criminal acts may soon be a thing of the past as that country’s law enforcers have tightened the screws.

With the high number of hijacking incidents occurring in neighbouring South Africa (SA), foreign registered, including those of emaSwati, will have police trackers to count on should their cars be stolen.

This comes after the South African Police Service (SAPS) introduced trackers that are put on every foreign registered car entering SA.
The trackers are being put at the border entry and are said to be available at all parts of entry connecting to SA. They were introduced at the beginning of this year.

The trackers, which come in the form of stickers, have a bar code which is accessible through a hand machine and they (barcodes) have details that one fills at the border, including, among other things, the name of the car owner, the type of the car and the engine number.

Hijacking

Information sourced was that there was a syndicate of Eswatini registered cars that were involved in many illegal acts, including robberies, hijacking and dagga transportation.
Meanwhile, it also surfaced that there were those cars which were registered under people in the country and would come for service and later be taken back. Imported cars were said to be leading in the number of cars discovered involved in illegal acts in SA.
It was stated that those were the cars that were mostly monitored as they also caused a lot of accidents in that country.

According to a South African police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, in an interview with this publication, SAPS established that there were people who were selling cars to SA citizens and would cross the border as people going for errands in that country but later came back using public transport after selling the cars in the country.

“There are a lot of Eswatini cars located in SA and found to be stolen and one of the reasons behind the tracking is to monitor the number of days spent by the cars in the neighbouring country,” she said.

The source further mentioned that there were Eswatini registered cars already held by the South African Revenue Services because they were being driven by South Africans, yet they crossed with other people who later returned to Eswatini.

 Elaborating, the police officer said with the newly- installed system, a car could be tracked as to who crossed with it to SA, its engine number and where it was mostly active while in SA.

She shared that there were stolen cars that they were able to track already through the same system.
The source said there was a Toyota Hilux car that was stolen and was tracked to the premises of a garage where police made even more recoveries of stolen items. Narrating, she said there was also a GWM vehicle that was stolen in Pretoria and linked to housebreaking incident around SA which they were able to find through the Toyota Hilux tracker.

Around the country, the stickers are notable on some cars and have SAPS sign on them.
It was stated that should a car that crossed with a liSwati to South Africa be seen without the sticker, it was going to be confiscated.
The same will apply to a car that illegally spent over 30 days in SA.

Confiscated

When asked about the removal of the sticker, it was said that even cars without it were going to be confiscated should they appear to have been registered in the system.
In an interview with some emaSwati who had the trackers on their cars and had recently crossed the border, they stated that they were told that the sticker was for their own safety.

“I enquired about the tracker and I was told it was meant for my own safety in that should I be hijacked, the police were going to track down the car,” mentioned Nothando.

Another driver who frequents SA said she used the Matsamo Border about two weeks ago and that they put the sticker on her car.
She said when she travelled again using the Ngwenya Border Gate, police wanted to stick the tracker only to discover that she already had it.

Matsamo-based SAPS Head Warrant Officer identified as Mlimi, confirmed the ongoing monitoring of foreign-registered cars. He said it was all cars from neighbouring countries including Lesotho, Mozambique and others, as long as they entered SA.
Mlimi further confirmed that the tracking stickers had all information of that particular car.

Spotted

“Should that car overstay in South Africa, whether it is stolen or was sold, it will be spotted at toll-gates and roadblocks across the country,” remarked Mlimi.
When asked about the intervention of SARS, Mlimi said motorists were not paying revenues in that country hence the country was losing because of the people who had foreign-registered cars and would return to their countries for servicing. On another note, it was gathered that the new system would also be used with those who receive tickets for fines for traffic offences but leave the neighbouring country without paying.

This is because the tracking system will contain details of whether that particular driver had been charged and if they did pay for those fines.

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