Lesotho border patrol
03 May 2013 12:08 #56801
by kliktrak
Replied by kliktrak on topic Lesotho border patrol
hmmm...probably explains the SAPS horse transport truck parked at Highmoor on 01 May.
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03 May 2013 19:19 - 03 May 2013 19:22 #56802
by HFc
Very well said.
I'm just concerned about a potential backlash to us as hikers. These guys may start thinking: who gave their position away, are any hikers they pass by potentially gonna tell on them etc etc. I'm concerned the casual bypassing of these groups with hikers may have come to an end. (As Ghaznavid also said above)
Trying to make an impact on the dagga trade and the subsequent berg erosion is the right thing for sure, but tough due to the absolute vast number of passes and areas they can use on all sides of Lesotho.
Tough one this...until the dust settles a bit on this matter I am postponing some escarpment endeavours, hopefully not too long.
Replied by HFc on topic Lesotho border patrol
mnt_tiska wrote: I definitely have views on the smuggling business.
If a donkey train carrying 3.8m worth of dope were to cross a road border from Lesotho to SA, the whole lot would get banged up. Because of this, the donkey trains ply the Berg passes instead - so that they don't get caught (most of the time). They do this because they can fetch a higher price for the smuggled dope in SA than they can selling it in Lesotho. As a result of this calculus, the Berg suffers irreversibly (it takes 10 000 years or so to replace an eroded soil horizon).
Its not about a few groups of people sitting round smoking dope as they have always done. It is about lucrative schemes to make enormous sums of money for which the Berg carries the prime negative externality.
Very well said.
I'm just concerned about a potential backlash to us as hikers. These guys may start thinking: who gave their position away, are any hikers they pass by potentially gonna tell on them etc etc. I'm concerned the casual bypassing of these groups with hikers may have come to an end. (As Ghaznavid also said above)
Trying to make an impact on the dagga trade and the subsequent berg erosion is the right thing for sure, but tough due to the absolute vast number of passes and areas they can use on all sides of Lesotho.
Tough one this...until the dust settles a bit on this matter I am postponing some escarpment endeavours, hopefully not too long.
Last edit: 03 May 2013 19:22 by HFc.
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05 May 2013 11:59 - 05 May 2013 16:29 #56805
by tiska
It seemes completely logical to think this way - but the evidence so far is that the smugglers are not suspicious of hikers. They also have no objective reason to be, as far as I know, but that is not something they will have any proof of.
If one views the smuggling process from the smuggler's perspective, then their job is to shift as much dope as quickly as they can into SA - preferably without having to engage with any third parties. Their key threat comes from rival gangs who may want to steal the dope (imagine hiking with 3.8 million ZAR in the side pocket of the backpack). I think this is the main reason they carry weapons. Thereafter, the threat comes from police/military - which we know to be too infrequent a threat to have any impact on what they do beyond the short term. Thereafter still, the threat may be from any other landowner along the way (e.g. in Mnweni) who may want to impose a tax of one sort or another on the passing trade. Hikers are way down the list and are not a direct threat. Smugglers may think hikers pass on information, but will know that links between busts and hikers are at best very indirect - there are so few busts compared with contacts with hikers. There is nevertheless a chance that smugglers might mistake hikers for police/military - especially at night. In fact I think this has already happened in the Cathedral area. If the police/military were to make a much more systematic and extensive effort in the Berg to curtail smuggling, then this risk would begin to approach the kind of risks the population is exposed to in SA with hijacking and heists. For the moment, the Berg seems safer than the streets - at least to me.
There is a parallel to the Berg smuggling issue which I have come across - namely in the central Sahara. In the 1990s, fuel was smuggled south out of Libya/Algeria into Mali/Niger. Cigarettes went the other way. This trade has morphed into an enormously lucrative cocaine trade (e.g. a 727 was landed in the Sahara with 10 tons of coke - the plane was left behind in the desert as the profits didn't justify the refuel/takeoff hassle). In all this time, tourists like me in the central Sahara have had the occasional contact with passing smugglers, mostly at night. One such occasion was actually on the slopes of Mnt Tiska in SE Algeria. The smugglers were coming in from Niger at night. Smugglers have always studiously ignored the tourists. We are not part of their mission.
Replied by tiska on topic Lesotho border patrol
Highlands Fanatic wrote: [
I'm just concerned about a potential backlash to us as hikers. These guys may start thinking: who gave their position away, are any hikers they pass by potentially gonna tell on them etc etc. I'm concerned the casual bypassing of these groups with hikers may have come to an end.
It seemes completely logical to think this way - but the evidence so far is that the smugglers are not suspicious of hikers. They also have no objective reason to be, as far as I know, but that is not something they will have any proof of.
If one views the smuggling process from the smuggler's perspective, then their job is to shift as much dope as quickly as they can into SA - preferably without having to engage with any third parties. Their key threat comes from rival gangs who may want to steal the dope (imagine hiking with 3.8 million ZAR in the side pocket of the backpack). I think this is the main reason they carry weapons. Thereafter, the threat comes from police/military - which we know to be too infrequent a threat to have any impact on what they do beyond the short term. Thereafter still, the threat may be from any other landowner along the way (e.g. in Mnweni) who may want to impose a tax of one sort or another on the passing trade. Hikers are way down the list and are not a direct threat. Smugglers may think hikers pass on information, but will know that links between busts and hikers are at best very indirect - there are so few busts compared with contacts with hikers. There is nevertheless a chance that smugglers might mistake hikers for police/military - especially at night. In fact I think this has already happened in the Cathedral area. If the police/military were to make a much more systematic and extensive effort in the Berg to curtail smuggling, then this risk would begin to approach the kind of risks the population is exposed to in SA with hijacking and heists. For the moment, the Berg seems safer than the streets - at least to me.
There is a parallel to the Berg smuggling issue which I have come across - namely in the central Sahara. In the 1990s, fuel was smuggled south out of Libya/Algeria into Mali/Niger. Cigarettes went the other way. This trade has morphed into an enormously lucrative cocaine trade (e.g. a 727 was landed in the Sahara with 10 tons of coke - the plane was left behind in the desert as the profits didn't justify the refuel/takeoff hassle). In all this time, tourists like me in the central Sahara have had the occasional contact with passing smugglers, mostly at night. One such occasion was actually on the slopes of Mnt Tiska in SE Algeria. The smugglers were coming in from Niger at night. Smugglers have always studiously ignored the tourists. We are not part of their mission.
Last edit: 05 May 2013 16:29 by tiska.
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05 May 2013 18:51 #56808
by ghaznavid
I tend to agree.
Replied by ghaznavid on topic Lesotho border patrol
mnt_tiska wrote: For the moment, the Berg seems safer than the streets - at least to me.
I tend to agree.
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06 May 2013 09:38 #56812
by intrepid
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
Replied by intrepid on topic Lesotho border patrol
Bear in mind too that these kinds of "big busts" are nothing new and have happened time and again over recent years. Last year there were several big busts and arrests. So far there has been no correlation between these and a backlash against hikers.
I totally understand the uneasy feeling of walking past smugglers knowing that they are carrying weapons. Its not the way things should be. But so far the issues have been limited to a couple of cases of gear snatching, confrontational discussions arising from uneasy hikers having their campsite invaded, and several cases where gunshots were fired. These gunshot cases often happen at night and seem to be directed at rival groups rather than hikers. There was a clear case near The Neck in the Organ Pipes area a few years ago where it seems the smugglers panicked in the dark and fired a few rounds, mistaking hikers to be park rangers who are often on patrol there.
I've personally been privy to a gunshot incident. It was in the middle of the day in the Ships Prow area and a single clear shot echoed through the valley. We were very confused as to what it was at first. Later as we were ascending the North Fork, we heard the smugglers and/or rustlers moving up almost parallel to us in the South Fork, as they were yelling loudly. After the hike I found out that this bunch had been pursued by the park rangers as they were stealing cattle. Evidently we walked right by two cow carcasses that had been pulled off the trail by the rangers. In hind sight it may well have been that this bunch may have seen us coming up the valley behind them and got panicked, thinking that the rangers still hadn't given up yet.
I’ve also walked right into large groups of them, numbering as many as 30-40. On one occasion it was just two of us, some 3km over the border into Lesotho. I have never seen so many smugglers and so much dagga in one place before! The bags were lying everywhere, some even opened, and many were stacked into several shepherd huts. They didn’t even bother much with us, to the extent that I actually tried to make conversation with them. On another occasion we ran into a very large bunch that were just returning from a run. They were very jovial and light-hearted, talking and laughing with us. They were even up for pictures.
I mention these things to say that though the situation is serious, I believe there is no reason to avoid the Berg currently because of this. I certainly don't feel at ease about any of it, but this is "business as usual" and this is the peak season for smuggling and busts. Its no secret what goes on at Ntonjelana, Rockeries and Mnweni Passes and police busts have been happening there for many years. That we hike there is incidental.
It may be best to avoid these passes, as well as the Organ Pipes and Grays Pass areas for the current season, especially if the situation seems too troubling for you.
I totally understand the uneasy feeling of walking past smugglers knowing that they are carrying weapons. Its not the way things should be. But so far the issues have been limited to a couple of cases of gear snatching, confrontational discussions arising from uneasy hikers having their campsite invaded, and several cases where gunshots were fired. These gunshot cases often happen at night and seem to be directed at rival groups rather than hikers. There was a clear case near The Neck in the Organ Pipes area a few years ago where it seems the smugglers panicked in the dark and fired a few rounds, mistaking hikers to be park rangers who are often on patrol there.
I've personally been privy to a gunshot incident. It was in the middle of the day in the Ships Prow area and a single clear shot echoed through the valley. We were very confused as to what it was at first. Later as we were ascending the North Fork, we heard the smugglers and/or rustlers moving up almost parallel to us in the South Fork, as they were yelling loudly. After the hike I found out that this bunch had been pursued by the park rangers as they were stealing cattle. Evidently we walked right by two cow carcasses that had been pulled off the trail by the rangers. In hind sight it may well have been that this bunch may have seen us coming up the valley behind them and got panicked, thinking that the rangers still hadn't given up yet.
I’ve also walked right into large groups of them, numbering as many as 30-40. On one occasion it was just two of us, some 3km over the border into Lesotho. I have never seen so many smugglers and so much dagga in one place before! The bags were lying everywhere, some even opened, and many were stacked into several shepherd huts. They didn’t even bother much with us, to the extent that I actually tried to make conversation with them. On another occasion we ran into a very large bunch that were just returning from a run. They were very jovial and light-hearted, talking and laughing with us. They were even up for pictures.
I mention these things to say that though the situation is serious, I believe there is no reason to avoid the Berg currently because of this. I certainly don't feel at ease about any of it, but this is "business as usual" and this is the peak season for smuggling and busts. Its no secret what goes on at Ntonjelana, Rockeries and Mnweni Passes and police busts have been happening there for many years. That we hike there is incidental.
It may be best to avoid these passes, as well as the Organ Pipes and Grays Pass areas for the current season, especially if the situation seems too troubling for you.
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.
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