Operation aims to control entry ports
Gigaba also condemned horn hunters whom he said take advantage of the unmanned border line to get into the Kruger Park where most of the rhino have been slaughtered.
SKUKUZA – Aimed at managing the cross-border movement of people and goods and clamping down on illegal activities, Operation Pyramid was launched in the Kruger National Park (KNP) on Friday.
The inter departmental project was officially put in action by home affairs minister, Mr Melusi Gigaba, acting Premier of the province, Mr Vusi Shongwe, mayor of Bushbuckridge municipality, Cllr Rhenias
Khumalo and defence and military veterans.
According to the minister it which will pave the way to the establishment of the Border Management Agency (BMA). Gigaba said the agency will be placed “as an interim measure… prior to the
establishment of an integrated BMA”.
Home affairs anticipates that the agency will significantly improve the management of ports of entry and borderlines. Welcoming guests at the launch, Shongwe said that the pyramid would assist in preserving rhino “which are hunted day and night”, and bustling syndicates which
contribute in human and child trafficking.
“It’s a great idea that the launch is here in Mpumalanga, the province of respect and we give the programme our full support and
can promise that our police system will work hand in hand in ensuring the success of the pyramid,” Shongwe added.
Gigaba also condemned horn hunters whom he said take advantage of the
unmanned border line to get into the Kruger Park where most of
the rhino have been slaughtered. “Government has come under severe
criticism for not securing its borders.
Operation Pyramid will see police and the departments of transport,
home affairs, and defence mitigate risks and threats,” he further said.
Speaking about the recent xenophobic attacks the minister said, “The dark clouds that descended over our country in May 2008 and April 2015 have, in a strange and surely undesirable way, widened the scope of national discourse on this phenomenon, extending it beyond academics, public officials and activists involved in the area;
ordinary people in every community have been brought on board.
“As a nation we have only partially harvested the benefits of inward and outward international migration while not sufficiently addressing its serious risks to our people, our state and our reputation.” He added that the country’s approach Members of the defence force and police parade during the official launch.
thus far has been ad hoc, arbitrary, based on the principles of “control” and has neglected the question of “managing international migration in the national interests in order to pursue and balance
our economic imperatives and national security interests.
“During the process, we have neglected focusing on the positive contribution of migrants in our society, how to harness international
migration for our benefit, what systems, processes and approaches must we put in place in order thus to benefit from the inevitable
process of international migration and, as Madiba said it, how to ensure that out of this process we strengthen our relations with the rest of our Continent bearing in mind that.
The peoples of Africa share a common destiny,” he said. Gigaba concluded by saying that this will help in human trafficking of
especially children, rhino poaching and people entering the country illegally.
Operation Pyramid precedes the establishment of a Border Management
Agency. The initiative will be extended to all the border lines of the country until 2017.
