SA police recover weapons in Johannesburg raid

Police in the South African city of Johannesburg have recovered arms and counterfeit goods in a massive raid targeting shops owned by foreigners.

An arms cache that included AK47 and other assault rifles were found.

Police Minister Bheki Cele, who inspected the operation areas, said the owner of the guns claimed to own a legitimate security firm, IOL news site reports.

He said the weapons had been taken for ballistic tests, it adds.

Pictures of the weapons have been posted on Twitter:

Johannesburg’s police chief tweeted that 30 foreigners had been arrested and also warned that counterfeit goods were harming South Africa’s economy:

An attempt by police last week to conduct the operation was repulsed by traders who pelted them with stones injuring some officers, reports say.

The city’s mayor Herman Mashaba has blamed “dysfunction” in the home affairs ministry for the confrontation between traders and police, City Press reports.

He said that the ministry had failed to deal with illegal migration:

“The department [of home affairs] is completely dysfunctional and failing in its constitutional obligation to address the issue of undocumented immigrants.”

He said that a report by the city’s health department had found that “between 15% to 39% of patients accessing [the] city’s clinics were undocumented immigrants”.

Mr Mashaba has asked to be allowed to raise the issue in a committee of parliament, “in the hope that the department of home affairs will finally be held unaccountable”, he said.

There are frequent attacks on foreigners, especially from other African countries, by South Africans, who accuse them of taking their jobs.

BBC