The Minister of the Interior announced this week a multi-billion dollar plan to refurbish six of the country’s busiest border posts.
Dr. In a debate on his department’s R10.8 billion budget in the National Council of Provinces, Aaron Motsoaledi said the massive project to “completely redesign and redevelop” the country’s busiest border posts will provide a major infrastructural and technological boost in the management of the borders.
“It will be a multi-billion rand project between the state and the private sector,” said Motsoaledi.
“However, the actual cost will only be known after the bidding process has been completed.”
The proposed project will see the Beitbrug border post between Limpopo and Zimbabwe renovated, as well as the Lebombo border post between Mpumalanga and Mozambique, the Oshoek border post between Mpumalanga and Eswatini, the Maseru and Ficksburg border posts in the Free State, both of which Lesotho border, as well as the Kopfontein border post between North West and Botswana.
Some of these border posts are notorious for their poor management which leads to rampant smuggling.
However, according to Motsoaledi, the newly established Border Management Authority (BMA) is progressing well in their efforts to ensure border security. He told the council that the BMA had already apprehended thousands of people trying to enter the country illegally.
The BMA apparently already functions as an independent and autonomous entity from the Department of Home Affairs.
A total of 200 border control officers have been deployed to border posts and they work alongside members of the police and the military to patrol and secure border posts.
At the time, the officers involved were subjected to lifestyle audits before they were employed so that they could be dismissed if there were any unexplained changes in their lifestyle.
“The most important weapon of these guards is not the firearms they carry, but their integrity,” Motsoaledi said at the time.
