{"id":31586,"date":"2026-04-12T10:08:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T08:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=31586"},"modified":"2026-04-12T12:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:21:09","slug":"third-bus-carrying-undocumented-migrants-intercepted-in-sas-free-state-province-this-month","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/third-bus-carrying-undocumented-migrants-intercepted-in-sas-free-state-province-this-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Third bus carrying undocumented migrants intercepted in SA&#8217;s Free State province this month"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">The most recent incident occurred on Saturday, when traffic officials stopped a bus travelling from Zimbabwe to Cape Town. The vehicle was found to be carrying 55 passengers, of whom 29 were undocumented, including seven minors.<\/div>\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Following the interception, the bus was taken to a testing centre in Bloemfontein for further inspection and processing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Officials also raised serious road safety concerns. The bus was found to have a defective and non\u2011functional door, posing a significant risk as passengers would be unable to enter or exit safely in an emergency. The trailer attached to the bus had defective brakes and severely worn tyres. In addition, the driver was found to be operating the vehicle without a valid driving licence and was driving using only a passport, further compounding the violations.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">This is the third such incident in the Free State since the beginning of April. The first occurred a day before Good Friday, when traffic officers stopped a bus on the N1 near Bloemfontein carrying 32 undocumented Zimbabwean nationals, including children and infants.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31587,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-31586","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Authorities in South Africa's (SA) Free State province have intercepted a third bus this month transporting undocumented foreign nationals, amid intensified operations to curb illegal migration and improve road safety.","published_date":"","news_description":"Authorities in South Africa's (SA) Free State province have intercepted a third bus this month transporting undocumented foreign nationals, amid intensified operations to curb illegal migration and improve road safety.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31588,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31586\/revisions\/31588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}