Mozambique and South Africa to strengthen fight against organized crime

Maputo, 10 Apr (AIM) – Mozambique and South Africa intend to strengthen cooperation mechanisms in order to improve the fight against organized crime, and curbing its spread in both countries.

To this end, the Mozambican Minister of the Interior, Pascoal Ronda, and his South African counterpart, Bheki Cele, met on Tuesday, in Maputo, to discuss the necessary measures to strengthen cooperation.

The cooperation includes combating trafficking in human beings, drugs, kidnappings and threats of terrorism.

The parties also expressed interest in measures to repatriate vehicles stolen in South Africa and driven into Mozambique, joint operations on the borders between the two countries, the search for criminals linked to these crimes and their extradition, and the exchange of information between intelligence services.

“This meeting is an opportunity to strengthen cooperation and adopt joint strategies in the field of public security, to prevent and combat organized and transnational crime in its various forms”, Ronda said.

He explained that the dynamic socio-economic development of the two countries requires the effective free movement of people and goods in order to facilitate the growth of cross-border trade and tourism, aspects that constitute high expectations for the populations of the two countries.

For his part, the South African minister warned that if countries don’t work together with the same focus, crime will always be one step ahead of the law.

“As a country, we understand that crime will always be one step ahead of the law if we work individually and not in partnership with other countries that share the same objectives as ours”, he said.

He also said that representatives of the two countries had held 12 meetings and technical operations to exchange information over the last year, with the ultimate aim of solidifying cooperation and mapping out a joint plan to cement collaboration with a focus on improving security in both countries.

“This whole process carried out so far reveals the seriousness of listing criminal threats inside and outside our borders as a whole”, he said.

(AIM)

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