The pair were put on a taxi to Johannesburg and ordered never to return to the city.

Members of Operation Fiela/Reclaim raided shops around the city in search of drugs and illegal immigrants. The raids were conducted following a tip-off that some of the food outlets around town are being used as a front for drug peddling. Two foreign shop owners had to close shop, their goods were confiscated and doors were locked. They were instructed to never return to the city.

"We are here because this guy is fronting with this restaurant. So we found large sums of money and the papers have expired and that is why we are removing him. And then the other three shops we managed to find drugs and we also found dagga, tik and a large sum of money also. So now we told him to just pack his money, we are removing him from this place,” the leader of Operation Fiela, Thabiso Louw, explains.

One of the shop owners, Henry Jideofor, whose equipment, food, and belongings were taken out of the shop for allegedly selling drugs, denied that he is using his shop as a front.

“Have I ever sold drugs in my life? No, I have never sold drugs in my life. I was in Joburg before I come here, I came to Kimberley in 2016. It’s in Joburg that I was because things are rough there, and the kind of life they live there is not what I want.”

The shop owners, who were found with drugs, were sent packing by the residents. The South African Police Service (SAPS) members were there in their numbers monitoring the situation, as residents took the law into their own hands.

Operation Fiela saying they had enough of drugs riddling communities in Kimberley. They raid undocumented foreign national shops. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/At3tpejf61

— Reginald (@ReggieReporter) March 21, 2022

Operation Fiela/Reclaim, is a multidisciplinary interdepartmental operation aimed at eliminating criminality and general lawlessness from our communities. As the word “fiela” means to sweep clean, we are ridding communities of crime and criminals so that the people of South Africa can be and feel safe. The ultimate objective of the operation is to create a safe and secure environment for all in South Africa.

The teams carrying out Operation Fiela/Reclaim focus on the prevention and combating of various crime types and addressing the safety concerns of the citizens of the country:

• Business premises searched for illegal activities and compliance with by-laws.
• Checking businesses and confiscating counterfeit goods.
• National Road Traffic Agency road offences.
• Illegal power connections.
• Illegal advertisement boards
• Human trafficking, illegal firearms and other related offences
• Possession and dealing in drugs
• Possession of unlicensed firearms & ammunition
• Liquor related offences

The effectiveness of Operation Fiela/Reclaim, which Government implemented in order to re-assert the authority of the State and to address lawlessness in identified areas, must once again be emphasised.  It continues to be a success story of note.

SABC News