ActionSA Criticises Limpopo SAPS After 280 Undocumented Foreign Nationals Arrested in One Week
POLOKWANE | A fresh set of police statistics has ignited political criticism in Limpopo after the South African Police Service confirmed that 280 undocumented foreign nationals were arrested across the province in the past week.
While SAPS has presented the arrests as part of its ongoing enforcement operations, ActionSA Limpopo says the figures are nowhere near enough to address what it describes as a growing crisis affecting public services, employment and law enforcement.
According to provincial police statistics released on Monday, the arrests were made between 30 June and 6 July 2026 across Limpopo’s five districts.
The breakdown is as follows:
- Capricorn: 68
- Mopani: 47
- Sekhukhune: 37
- Vhembe: 91
- Waterberg: 37
Although the figures reflect continued police operations, ActionSA Limpopo Provincial Chairperson Victor Mathomela dismissed the results as deeply disappointing.
“SAPS announcing 280 arrests in a week sounds like progress on paper, but to a mother in Polokwane waiting six hours at a clinic or a young person who cannot find work, 280 is nothing,” Mathomela said.
He argued that the number of arrests falls far short of the scale of the challenge facing the province.
Mathomela claimed that community reports and independent data suggest there are more than 100,000 undocumented people in Polokwane alone, although he did not provide evidence to support the estimate.
The party maintains that arresting 280 people across the entire province amounts to “a drop in the ocean” when compared with the alleged size of the undocumented population.
Despite its criticism, ActionSA acknowledged the work being done by frontline police officers.
“Our SAPS members are trying, and we salute them. How do we tell Limpopians that we will fix service delivery when our towns, clinics and schools are buckling under numbers no one is willing to face?” Mathomela said.
The party added that it would not regard provincial police announcements on undocumented foreign national arrests as meaningful unless the numbers increase substantially.
Meanwhile, ActionSA said one of its constituencies participated in a joint operation with SAPS and officials from the Department of Home Affairs outside Tzaneen, where 21 undocumented foreign nationals employed by a private company in the Tzaleba area were allegedly arrested.
The South African Police Service has not indicated whether additional enforcement operations are planned in response to concerns raised over undocumented immigration in the province.
