Over 90 farms and other residences are being raided in all provinces as part of a countrywide intelligence-driven operation which started in the early hours on Friday, police reported.
”Members of the SAPS will also question a number of people whom we feel can assist us with our investigations into the recent bomb blasts,” Director Sally de Beer said.
”This operation is also part of a probe into a plan to overthrow the government by means of a terror campaign.”
A number of people have already been arrested for possession of illegal firearms, ammunition and other offences, she said. De Beer said an evaluation of Friday’s exercise would be made later.
One person has been killed and at least three people have been injured in a series of bomb blasts across South Africa since the end of October.
Police have linked rightwing extremists to the blasts but at this stage no one has been charged for the bombings. Numerous bomb threats have also been made to police and other institutions.
This is a chronology of the blasts.
October 30, 2002: Nine blasts rock Soweto shortly after midnight, damaging railway lines and the Dhlamini Mosque. One woman, Claudina Mokane, is killed by falling shrapnel as she sleeps in her shack, and her husband is injured. A tenth bomb is discovered and defused. In, Bronkhorstspruit later in the day, two people are injured when the detonator of another bomb explodes in a Buddhist temple
November 16, 2002: Bishop Lavis: A bomb explodes in the offices of the Western Cape branch of the serious and violent crimes unit at the Bishop Lavis police station on the Cape Flats damaging doors and windows. No one is hurt.
November 23, 2002: A bomb explodes in a building housing the Police Airwing at Grand Central Airport in Midrand, damaging windows and roofing. No one is hurt.
November 28, 2002: A bomb explodes in the early hours of the morning on the Umtamvuna River bridge near the Wild Coast Sun on the border of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, causing structural damage. No one is hurt. – Sapa