By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Commissioner of the Border Management Authority, Dr. Michael Masiapato says they have launched new BMA immigration security stamps at the ports of entry to strengthen national security and enhance the integrity of border control processes.
Masiapato was briefing the media in Pretoria today on the first quarter report of the 2025/2026 financial year.
The statistics revealed by the commissioner were for the first quarter of the financial year and featured data collected from all international ports of entry.
Masiapato said that the BMA had recorded 9 954 attempted illegal border crossings between April and June.
Broken into categories, 5 826 were undocumented, 2 127 were inadmissible and 2 001 were classified as undesirables.
Travellers can be declared inadmissible for a variety of reasons, and this decision is generally made following an interview by a immigration officer.
“The majority of those intercepted and deported individuals were Basotho, Zimbabweans and Mozambicans, “said Masiapato.
He stated that since July 2022, border officials had prevented roughly 496 600 people from attempting to enter the country illegally.
Masiapato said each immigration officer has been given the new stamps, each with unique numbers that trace back to them.
“We collaborated with our colleagues in the government printing works and designed a new stamp with the highest security standards, and effectively included the BMA logo and the Big Five in the value chain. That is to prevent tampering, forgery, and of course unauthorised use of those particular stamps,” said Masiapato.
The commissioners said the discontinuation of the old stamps was simultaneously carried out with the introduction of the new ones on Friday.
“While we have started with immigration-based stamps, we have started a new design of other specialised functions such as health, agriculture and environment,” said the commissioner.
Masiapato also urged the public to ensure their passports are in a valid state to avoid being turned away from ports of entry.
“It has been noted that travellers arrive at the port of entry with only one available page to stamp, often mistakenly offering the last page for stamping, as passports are not permitted, as they are in other jurisdictions in other parts of the world.”
South Africa’s porous borders, plagued by poor infrastructure and enforcement, are notoriously vulnerable to transnational criminal networks.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of GCIS.