By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Defence Minister Thandi Modise has condemned the Patriotic Alliance (PA) for manning the country’s porous border along the Limpopo River.
The party have taken it upon themselves to prevent returning Zimbabweans from entering South Africa illegally.
PA leader Gayton McKenzie and his deputy Kenny Kunene posted a number of videos of their activities on social media.
“The responsibility for border management, the responsibility to ensure that South Africa’s lives, integrity, life and limb is intact rests with the National Defence force, the Border Management Authority and SAPS,” said Modise.
“No citizen of this country is allowed to run around with what seems to be a machine gun. We ask people to allow those responsible for those duties to do their work”, the Minister added.
In response, Mckenzie said, their intentions on patrolling along the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe was to highlight the ease in which one can enter the country.
“We would be incredibly naive to think our actions at the border would stop all illegal crossings. Our intention was to put a spotlight on the crisis facing us all and to highlight the dangers.”
The Border Management Authority (BMA) meanwhile has deployed more officials to monitor the return of travellers who had gone home for the festive period.
BMA Commissioner Mike Masiapato, who has been hands-on at the border post for the past three days, said the operation was to ensure that people who come into the country have been properly checked and documented.
“We have to use that approach, which is a different approach, to make sure that we do not have people inside the port who don’t have proper documentation because those are people who ultimately find themselves having to bribe our officials and all of that.
Masiapato mentioned that it would be difficult for people to cross the river due to the heavy rains of last week.
Government is also looking to the private sector to assist in upgrading South Africa’s land ports with neighbouring countries.
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that six land ports of entry had been identified for infrastructure and security upgrades.
These include Beitbridge linking SA to Zimbabwe, the Lembombo border post between SA and Mozambique, Maseru Bridge between SA and Lesotho, Ficksburg between SA and Lesotho, Kopfontein between South Africa and Botswana and Oshoek between SA and Eswatini.
The project has been announced as a private-public partnership (PPP) and is subject to approval from National Treasury.
According to Motsoaledi, South Africa’s land ports of entry are in a dire state with increasing volumes of regional and international trade at these ports being “stifled”, leading to congestion.
“The South African side of the border looks like an informal settlement while the [neighbouring country’s] side looks like Sandton […] Take a visit to the Lebombo border post in Mozambique where you will see trucks are lined up for kilometres, bumber-to-bumper at hours on end on the N4. Mining companies in the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga decided to use the Maputo port for their exports and no longer Richards Bay Harbour,” he said.
He said government is looking to improve the security of land ports to ensure that illegal trade is also limited.