Zimbabwean police at the Beit Bridge border post arrested 46 suspects, among them suspected cigarette smugglers and criminals commonly known as gumagumas, involved in assisting border jumpers to cross the border into South Africa illegally.

Police spokesperson Chief Supt Lawrence Chinhengo said the suspects were arrested between Friday and Sunday during the ongoing blitz, codenamed “Gumagumas Go Back Home.”

“We arrested 46 suspects, most of whom were touts involved in assisting border jumpers and smugglers, and we also recovered smuggled goods worth R22 502.

“This is an ongoing routine border exercise, which is aimed at flushing out criminal elements who are a menace at the border. As police, we will continue to intensify our fight against crime until sanity prevails in the border town,” he said.

Chinhengo said they had also nabbed three criminals who were on the police´s wanted list for robbery, rape and cross-border stocktheft cases. He urged people to desist from using undesignated entry points to cross into South Africa as they risked being attacks by organised syndicates.

“Most of the attacks on border jumpers are perpetrated by people who approach them under the guise of offering to help them cross the border to South Africa illegally. These suspects lure the border jumpers and then later on rob them of their belongings. We are urging people to desist from using undesignated crossing points as they risk their lives. Border jumping is also a criminal offence punishable by the law,” he said.

A number of people, mostly women and children, crossing the border into South Africa illegally through undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River are sexually abused and mugged by organised criminal syndicates who operate along the border. Chinhengo said the suspects would appear in court soon.