The Border Management Authority (BMA) says it has managed to intercept more than 300 “high value” vehicles which were being illegally taken out of South Africa through different ports.
Addressing media on Monday morning regarding the readiness of the law enforcement agency ahead of the busy festive season, commissioner of the BMA, Dr Michael Masiapato said authorities have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to clamp down on all forms of criminality at the ports.
“In addressing the scourge of illegal migration, the BMA has managed to intercept and stop about 410,000 individuals attempting to enter the country illegally since the deployment of the first cohorts of the Border Guards on July 15 2022. In this regard, the majority got arrested, fingerprinted, declared undesirable for period of five years, and deported,” said Masiapato.
“Further, we have been able to detect about 312 high value vehicles which were meant to illegally exit the country to other jurisdictions in the continent. In this regard, the matters were handed over to SAPS detectives for further investigations.”
Masiapato said since the beginning of this year, the multi-disciplinary anti-corruption teams enhanced their vigilance to detect officials who tend to process travel documents for individuals who do not present themselves before the immigration officers as required by the Immigration Act.
During this year, three BMA immigration officers have been given precautionary suspensions, while seven officials were dismissed and 43 cases of misconduct are at various stages of the disciplinary process.
“As the BMA, we have adopted a zero tolerance on corrupt tendencies within the organisation. This is demonstrated by our collaboration with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) through the establishment of the Border Management and Immigration Anti-corruption Forum which seeks to deter corruption and unethical conduct within the ports of entry and the border law enforcement areas,” said Masiapato.
On immigration matters, Masiapato said the BMA has received notification from the Department of Home Affairs indicating that the Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber has extended the validity of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) to November 2025.
“In this regard, all ports of entry have been notified of this development in order to ensure the correct processing of the ZEP holders,” said Masiapato.
As the world enters the festive season, jurisdictions across the world experience a significant increase in the movement of persons and goods at their ports of entry and border law enforcement areas.
“South Africa is not immune to this reality, and it is on this basis that the BMA had to coordinate and manage the development of a comprehensive plan for implementation by various stakeholders in the border environment. Just for context, the plan consists of four phases and those are the planning phase which started on September 20, 2024; the execution phase which will start on the December 10, 2024 consisting of both the exit and return legs; the demobilisation phase which would be implemented on January 15, 2025; followed by the sustenance phase which commences on January 16, 2025 until the end of the year,” said Masiapato.
Operationally, the plan is supported by the National Joint Operations and Intelligence Structures (NATJoints) under the chairship of Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, and the provincial joint operations and intelligence structures.
“Just for historical context, during the December-January festive season, in the pre-Covid period of 2019/2020, the BMA facilitated about 6.3 million people across our various ports of entry. The numbers decreased in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 period to about 1.6 million due to Covid restrictions. However, in the 2022/2023 period, we recovered to above four million people,” said Masiapato.
The recovery continued in 2023/24 period to above five million people.
“So, this time around, we anticipate a full recovery to the pre-Covid number of more than six million people. Over the years, our top 10 ports of entry which facilitate the majority of the people have always been OR Tambo International airport in Johannesburg, Beit Bridge land port to Zimbabwe, Lebombo land port to Mozambique, Caledonspoort, Ficksburg and Maseru Bridge land ports to Lesotho, Cape Town International airport in the Western Cape, Oshoek land port to Eswatini, as well as Kopfontein, and Groblers’ Bridge land port to Botswana,” said Masiapato.
He said during the development of the festive season plan, the historical trends were taken into consideration, especially when considering areas requiring the deployment of additional resources.
“During the planning phase, we among other activities, conducted extensive inter-jurisdictional discussions with our six immediate neighbouring countries of Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Eswatini and Botswana in order to streamline border processes and coordinate our work modalities for this period,” said Masiapato.
As a result, Masiapato said Minister Schreiber has approved the request to extend the operating hours at key ports which do not operate on a 24-hour basis.