Vigilante farmer patrols do not control the Zimbabwe-South African border, Limpopo police said on Wednesday.
The statement came after a Sky News report into vigilantism against border-crossing aired earlier this week.
The report apparently showed South African farmers capturing Zimbabweans trying to cross the border, and then handing them over to the police for deportation.
Last month a Beeld reporter described how she accompanied a group of farmers in the Musina area as they apprehended three Zimbabweans and handed them to police.
The reporter said the farmers were carrying out daily patrols for illegal immigrants.
On Wednesday, Limpopo police Commissioner Calvin Sengani said: ”There is no truth in the allegations … that farmers have taken control of the borderlines in the province.
”Members of the public cannot be allowed to patrol borderlines and public roads and arrest illegal foreigners entering the country, as crossing the borderline is not a criminal offence that justifies harsh action.”
Allegations that a crisis was developing on the border were ”not true”.
Sengani met on Wednesday with key police involved in border operations.
They had briefed him that arrests of illegal foreigners at some places were in fact decreasing, said Sengani.
”No significant increase of the influx of illegal foreigners, compared with previous years, could be detected,” he said.
The head of the South African Human Rights Commission, Jody Kollapen, told the South African Press Association the commission welcomed the police statement to the extent it suggested that police would deal with people illegally taking on police functions.
”South Africa is facing quite a crisis with Zimbabwe migration,” said Kollapen.
He said this was a crisis beyond issues of safety and security.
Humanitarian aspects should be considered, such as the plight of asylum seekers and those in need of emergency medical care, said Kollapen.
The South African Police Service should liaise with other government departments, like social welfare and development, to address the border situation fully, he said. — Sapa