Don't panic! Terror cases show SA crackdown is working‚ says expert

18 January 2017 - 19:19 By Farren Collins
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Two cases in which suspected terrorists were prevented from entering the country prove South Africa remains at risk of attacks‚ says a counterterrorism expert.

But Martin Ewi‚ of the Institute for Security Studies‚ warned against predictions of imminent attacks and said the government had done a lot to limit the threat.

  • Immigration officers intercepted IS suspect at OR Tambo‚ says GigabaA Syrian suspected member of terror group Islamic State was refused entry at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg in December. 

Ewi said the risk came from a number of factors‚ including the global threat of terrorism.

“The second factor is that the Islamic State is losing a lot in Syria and Iraq‚” Ewi said.

“It is estimated that they have lost 60% of the territory that they used to control and about 50‚000 militants‚ and therefore they want to take the fight out of that region.

"They want to fight America and other members of the international coalition through other countries.”

A Syrian suspected member of Islamic State (IS) was refused entry at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg in December.

The man was carrying Syrian and Uruguayan passports‚ Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said at a briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday.

“This goes to show the important role immigration plays in security‚” Gigaba said.

“Before the 2016/17 festive period‚ South Africa had beefed up security by rolling out biometrics at selected points ... People feel safe when coming to South Africa.”

The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that a bomb maker working for IS was arrested at a Turkish airport last month as he was about to board a flight to Johannesburg.

The suspect‚ an Iraqi named Abu Osama‚ was allegedly planning an attack in South Africa.

Osama’s arrest took place shortly after immigration officials at OR Tambo stopped the Syrian‚ who had flown in from the US via Turkey on December 16.

Ewi said tighter passport restrictions had led to better port and entry controls‚ as a result of which South Africa was no longer considered a major transit or recruitment point for terrorists.

“The South African passport was the most common with terrorists‚ but not any more‚" he said.

"There is no basis to call South Africa a soft spot and there have not been any major attacks here for almost 20 years to back that point.”

-TMG Digital/The Times

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