Pretoria - Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, has expressed concern at the high number of bomb disposal activities in the country.
Over the past four years, explosives incidents amongst civilians have increased, Incidents such as school children experimenting with home-made explosives, illegal storage and unauthorized use of explosives by registered users or blasters have been identified by the department as areas of concern.
"In cases where criminals have been involved in ATM bombings, we have through our intelligence, communities and business partnerships, managed to deal a deadly blow to these crimes.
"As government, we shall spare neither effort nor strength in ensuring that these criminals fail in their selfish acts," said Mthethwa.
An average of 17 000 bomb disposal incidents per year was recorded by the South African Police Service for the 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 financial years.
During 2006-2007, there were 19 276 explosive incidences, and in 2007-2008 the figure was 17 839, while in 2008-2009 it reached its highest at 21 391 and for the 2009-2010 fiscal years till end of December 2009, the figure stood at 16 750.
"We have also noted that curiosity of members of the public who discover abandoned or any other unusual and discarded explosives contributes to this high figure. This usually leads to the person being injured and we therefore appeal to society to refrain from this practice," added Mthethwa
