By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the deployment of Border Management Authority (BMA) guards was “on course” and the department was waiting for National Treasury to approve the budget for 400 more border guards.
Motsoaledi was speaking during a Parliamentary Debate of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Wednesday.
In July last year, the department announced the deployment of 200 Border Management Authority (BMA) guards to South Africa’s “five vulnerable segments” of the borderline. The guards are working in partnership with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).
Motsoaledi slammed those who accused South Africa of trying to isolate itself through this programme, saying the country was not the only one doing everything to ensure security at its borders.
“We have been unjustifiably ridiculed by some dishonest people that we’re trying to isolate South Africa from the rest of the continent when we manage our borders. Surprisingly, at the same time we’re being ridiculed for porous borders,” said Motsoaledi.
“Every country I know of in the world is interested to know what is going on at their borders; what is coming in and going out. We will not apologise to anybody for deploying border guards to do what other nations of the world are doing.”
Motsoaledi further announced that the first cohort of graduates employed to digitise home affairs’ 350 million records completed their training in Benoni last week.
They have been dispatched to all provinces to their start their jobs, said Motsoaledi.
“These young people will be employed for a period of three years to transform paper records into digital files. The advert for the second cohort of 4 000 is out already. All 10 000 young people will be on the job by the end of April 2023,” he said.
The graduates will help digitise files of records of births, marriages, deaths, IDs and passports dating back to 1895.
Motsoaledi also announced that systems and equipment had already been set up at Menlyn Mall in Tshwane and “ready to roll” in the first week of March.
“In three weeks’ time you may go to Menlyn Mall and experience waiting to be served while you’re doing your shopping.”
After Menlyn Mall, they will go to Cresta Mall in Johannesburg, the Pavillion Mall in eThekwini and the Tyger Valley Mall in Cape Town.