South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers on border patrol duty have recovered a stolen vehicle and nearly 300 kg of dagga in the latest Operation Corona successes.
Captain A Tamela reported for the SANDF that on the evening of 21 August, members of 8 SA Infantry Battalion were conducting a foot patrol in Mshololo, Pongola, in KwaZulu-Natal when they discovered eight neatly wrapped bags of dagga tucked away among the bushes near a nearby residential settlement.
The soldiers approached the residents to question them about the bags, hoping to gather information. However, the occupants were rather tight-lipped, insisting they had no knowledge of the bags or their origins.
The bags were then transported to the Pongola Police Station for proper processing and documentation. The Military Police were also activated and joined the efforts at the station. The eight bags of dagga collectively weighed 290 kilograms, with an estimated value of R1 092 000.
In another incident, this time in Limpopo on 18 August, patrolling soldiers from 1 Special Service Battalion came across an abandoned Ford Ranger on the side of the road near a T-junction along the R525 near the Limpopo River. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the vehicle had a flat tyre.
“From experience, our soldiers knew that the owner would return to retrieve his/her vehicle as the vehicle was still in good standing,” reported Captain Moses Semono. The soldiers called on their Commander who called the South African Police Service to circulate the vehicle through their system. The vehicle was discovered to be stolen from We Buy Cars in Mamelodi.
At around 3:30 am that same morning, soldiers, having closed off road that led to the T-junction, tried to stop a white Volkswagen Amarok, “but the driver didn’t cooperate and instead, he attempted to overrun him. The soldier – noticing that his life was in danger – shot at the vehicle in defence of his life. His colleague also fired one round at the vehicle to protect his comrade in arms.”
Semono added that the driver “was allowed to exercise his rights to open a case against the Military. The Ford Ranger was handed over to the South African Police Service.”
