MRM APPLAUDS MULTIMILLION SWARTRUGGENS DRUG BUST

Pastor Lesiba Kgwele
Convener of the Moral Regeneration Movement North West Committee

By Pastor Lesiba Kgwele
Convener of the Moral Regeneration Movement North West Committee

The Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) in the Northwest on Wednesday applauded the arrest of 11 suspects that include four Mexican nationals, one of whom is a woman after the discovery of drugs worth millions at a clandestine drug laboratory on a farm in Swartruggens.

The Civil society led movement promoting the Charter of Positive Values Positive Charter of Values had earlier observed the shift of drug trade operations from urban centers to rural communities where drug syndicates thought they would not be easily detected.

Convenor of the MRM Provincial Committee, Pastor Lesiba Kgwele remarked that the recent drug bust has exposed another massive operation that relied on obscurity while it supplied drugs that are destroying the future and lives of mostly youth to a wider network.

“While are encouraged that there still exists capacity within the SAPS to mount such a thorough investigation by dedicated police officers, we can only celebrate the successful arrests when all the mastermind/s behind the drug cartel that must have been supported by a sophisticated logistics to move the drugs around is completely dismantled,” highlighted Pastor Kgwele.

According to the SAPS National Spokesperson, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, the intelligence-driven operation that resulted in the successful dismantling of the drug lab and the arrest of the suspects was executed by the National Head Office Crime Intelligence, National Head Office Organised Crime Investigations and a National team from the DPCI.

Kgwele highlighted that drugs abuse and illicit trafficking are tearing families apart and causing the immeasurable pain of watching their loved one going to waste due to drug addiction.

He stressed that there is urgent need for united action and collaboration to establish value driven communities as part of contributing towards reclaiming Ubuntu and addressing moral decay.

“This national effort that demands vigilance must be supported by intensified local effort to rid our communities of drugs which are contributing to senseless violent crimes and gender-based violence and femicide” he said.