A gate left open and unattended along the border fence between South Africa and Zimbabwe near the Beitbridge border crossing in Limpopo. Picture: Jacques Nelles
While the deployment of Border Management Authority (BMA) was a big step in right direction to dealing with SA’s porous borders, it, however, seems to be “victim of the same old problem in SA of government being unable to coordinate initiatives across departments”.
According to African Defence Review director Darren Olivier, ideally the BMA were supposed to take over all functions of border control, including the role currently performed by the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) but seemed to lack implementation once more.
“It’s a rather odd organisation,” he said.
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Political analyst Ralph Mathekga concurred, saying the programme “clearly was not going to succeed because it was not a clear policy, but rather a reaction”.
He added: “People will always try to lush against fence as long as they know they will access better opportunities where they are going, it’s a simple as that. No border patrol will end this quickly.”
When asked what the department and the minister could do to ensure that the programme was more effective Mathekga said: “Firstly, to come up with policy. Something decent”.
Following a series of videos trending on social media, it seemed foreign nationals were still “coming up with creative ways to enter the country”, which has left many questioning whether the BMA was another failed policy and programme by the ANC due to lack of implementation.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi announced the deployment of the first group of BMA border guards to facilitate legal and legitimate cross-border movement of people and goods into and out of our country.
In June Motsoaledi announced his department was working on a “complete overhaul” of SA’s immigration system to deal with the immigration “crisis”.
He said this included recruiting more border guards; fighting corruption within home affairs ;and arresting South Africans selling their identity documents to foreigners.
“Immigration is another area of concern. It is a crisis we are all well aware of.
“At the moment, it will suffice to say we have decided on a complete overhaul of the immigration system. Complete overhaul means exactly that.”
He said the BMA would do duty at the “identified problematic segments”, which he identified as Beitbridge border gate with Zimbabwe; Lebombo and Kosi Bay with Mozambique, and Maseru Bridge with Lesotho.
Meanwhile, the department published an updated Critical Skills List adding 39 new occupations on top of the previous publication in February, which hosted additions that predominantly focused on the medical field.
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