While many have commended the recent success of the recently established Border Management Authority’s (BMA) swift action to prevent the possible human trafficking of more than 433 Zimbabwean children into South Africa, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has indicated that this was just “the tip of the iceberg”.
On Sunday, BMA commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato, who was addressing a media briefing in Pretoria on Sunday, said it had intercepted more than 44 000 individuals attempting to illegally enter South Africa, and they have been arrested, fingerprinted, declared undesirable and deported since April this year.
BMA also reported that this week, it had stopped the possible trafficking of 443 Zimbabwean children who were travelling in more than 42 buses at the infamous Beitbridge border post.
Mashaba, who last week spent two days at the border, said this was nothing to celebrate.
“The 443 Zimbabwean children who were stopped at Beitbridge border post after it was found that they were allegedly being trafficked into South Africa is only the tip of the iceberg of the country’s dysfunctional border operations which the ruling party has allowed to decay.
“Having visited the Beitbridge border post in Limpopo last week, I have seen first-hand how border operations in South Africa have nearly ceased to exist, with kilometres of fencing at the country’s borders being torn down and people moving freely in between. This does not even include the countless incidents of corruption and abuse at border posts,” Mashaba said on Monday.
Mashaba said in the light of years of neglect of border management and the lack of political will to enforce the country’s immigration laws, there have been frequent incidents similar to the recent one that have gone unnoticed.
It was reported that these children, some of them as young as 8 years old, had been travelling without any guardians.
During these recent sting operations at South Africa’s borders, it was also reported that the border guards had intercepted more than 279 high-value stolen vehicles and 396 blasting cartridges commonly used during cash-in-transit robberies, around the ports of entry since being deployed. However, Mashaba said he was not convinced.
“While we are grateful that these children have safely been returned home from the border post, I shudder to think of the possible hundreds of children who are illegally smuggled over where borders have been torn down and are not manned by security personnel. The South African government should take sole responsibility for allowing our borders to decay to this extent.
“As a party which values the rule of law, ActionSA believes that introducing new legislation or agencies such as the Border Management Authority (BMA) will do little to address our porous borders unless corruption is ruled out and the political will exists to protect our borders. Our laws are implemented without fear or favour, but that is difficult when our laws are repeatedly undermined by politicians,“ Mashaba added.
Masiapato said the BMA will be heightening its operations as the festive season begins.
He said these include longer border post operating times and more boots on the ground, as the authority expects more than six million people moving in and out of the country’s borders.
“While some of our busiest ports already operate on a 24-hour basis, the Minister of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has already approved our request to extend the operating hours on other identified critical ports on certain dates that we agreed with our immediate neighbouring countries,” he said.
The Star