Unlawful immigrants arrested throughout search operation in Sandton – SABC Information

More than a dozen illegal immigrants have been arrested during an operation early this morning at the Ginger Informal Settlement in Sandton, led by the City of Johannesburg.

The operation, which also included Home Affairs, was focused on enforcing by-laws and dismantling illegal informal settlements in designated areas of the northern suburbs.

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero says they have been taken into custody.

“Well we have arrested a few undocumented. They are already in the police vans, and they will be taken into custody and then hopefully Home Affairs will act on them and take them back to their countries of origin and we are also identifying if there are any other criminal activities that are happening here. We have already established that they sell nyaope and the police are acting on that. So, we will continue to act and look at illegality and criminal activity but the central objective is to get rid of these informal settlements.”

Morero says he will ensure that more raids are conducted at informal settlements across the city in an attempt to root out crime.

The mayor says lawlessness will not be tolerated.

“We will continue to do the raids, we must see them and the thing we are doing here is to tell the residents we are acting and dealing with lawlessness in Johannesburg, we are enforcing the law through by-laws enforcement and crime prevention – that’s basically what we are doing and we are not going to shy away. What is critical is the court orders. We have them prepared and we can act in accordance with the law. We can’t allow lawlessness to continue in our city.”

Meanwhile, residents in the area say they are extremely happy to see law enforcement officials conducting raids.

Residents say they hope that such operations can be conducted more regularly.

The South African Police Service has arrested over 15 undocumented foreign nationals living in this illegal informal settlement. #ReclaimJoburg #FixingJoburg pic.twitter.com/RLrSSzFzAC

— Executive Mayor of the City Of Joburg (@DadaMorero) July 25, 2025

Joburg Mayor Morero leads community safety drive in Fourways: