Responding to questions from an opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party official during the release of annual crime statistics in Parliament on Tuesday, South African Police Minister Fikile Mbalula illegal Zimbabwean farm workers are behind robberies among other crimes committed in the neighbouring country.
In April this year, Mbalula alleged that Zimbabwean ex-soldiers were responsible for violent crimes occurring in the neighbouring country. Said Mbalula:
It’s true that there are criminals who are stealing from farms, undermining farmers work, but equally there are farmers who are wrong, because they employ people from Zimbabwe as cheap labour and exploit them, and then those people turn against them and kill them and then it becomes a safety question. o, I am saying to the farmers as I have met with them, stop that. Help me to ensure compliance, working with the department of labour. Don’t employ unregistered, undocumented foreigners in our country and when they turn against you, you blame the South African Police Service. We’ve got nowhere to find such people.
Chairman of the Zimbabwean Community in South Africa, Mr Ngqabutho Mabhena said Mbalula’s claims lack merit.
More: Chronicle