A machete is found during the raid on Jeppestown hostel on Tuesday evening.
“The whole national team are here. The national commissioner as well,” spokesperson Lieutenant Kay Makhubela said of the raid on Tuesday night.
Images from the hostel broadcast by eNCA showed dozens of men lined up in the passages wearing nothing but boxer shorts, their arms raised, palms pressed to the walls, as soldiers searched their beds and lockers.
The raid follows an undertaking by Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula earlier on Tuesday that the army would be sent into areas countrywide where xenophobic violence had flared up.
Seven people have been killed during the violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in the past week.
According to an eNCA reporter a machete, a small axe, and several knives were found. Makhubela said shortly before midnight that no arrests had been made.
On Wednesday, police said eleven men were arrested for being in possession of drugs and stolen property during the raid.
National police spokesperson Solomon Makgale said large bags of dagga and possibly stolen items were recovered at the hostel. It was not immediately clear what the estimated value of the dagga was. The men, aged between 24 and 49, would appear in the Jeppe Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on charges of possession of dagga and stolen property.
The raid began at 22:00 and ended around 04:00.– News24.com
