The delays in processing the Border Management Agency (BMA) Bill is holding back government plans to rationalise the country’s border management system, the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, told a mini-plenary of the National Assembly (NA).
Delivering his department’s Budget Vote for debate this week, the Minister called for the urgent finalisation of the Bill which was passed by the National Assembly in 2017, but got stuck in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
“The BMA Bill was passed by the National Assembly in 2017, unfortunately it got stuck in the NCOP. Our immediate task is to go to the NCOP and unstick it so that we can establish the authority,” the Minister said.
Once the Bill is passed, he explained, the Border Management Agency’s pilot projects will start and focus on OR Tambo International Airport, Cape Town Airport, Cape Town Harbour, the Oshoek border post between South Africa and eSwatini, as well as Lebombo border between South Africa and Mozambique.
Currently, South Africa’s borders are managed by seven different departments and entities, applying 58 different laws passed by Parliament. They are Home Affairs; South African Police Service; South African National Defence Force; Agriculture, Land and Rural Development; Health; Environment; and the South African Revenue Service.
The Minister said under the proposed Border Management Agency, there will be one command structure and one governance system, and the management of the borders will become rationalised.
“In the public domain, the debate has been raging for a long time about South Africa’s porous borders and the fragmented border management approach. The problem is not that people must not come to South Africa, but that whoever enters the country must be properly documented.”
He was also concerned that porous borders made documentation extremely difficult, something which leads to many criminal activities, which include human trafficking, especially of women and children, drug smuggling, stolen goods, counterfeit and contraband passing through the country’s borders.
Debating in support of the department’s budget of R8.3 billion for the 2019/20 financial year, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, Adv Bongani Bongo, who is also a Member of the National Assembly, said he hoped that the planned Border Management Agency will help improve safety of the country’s ports of entry.
“The movement of people is inalienable to trade operations, economic growth and development, that’s why the border management system should be strengthened and the department must play a crucial role in its strategies to ensure that only documented people find themselves in the country,” said Adv Bongo.
He further advised the department to also strengthen its management of asylum seekers, with strict adherence to international conventions.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Member of the National Assembly, Mr Vuyani Pambo, said his party rejected the Budget Vote, arguing that the “Department of Home Affairs is not Afrocentric, and oftentimes actively undermines the goal for a united, borderless Africa.”
He said this was evident in the decline of asylum seekers who have been processed between 2009 and 2019, and called on the department to “stop the practice of treating African people from other countries as if they suffer from leprosy”.
“They are our siblings and must be made to feel at home here. It is always African people who are chucked out of the country by the Department of Home Affairs. It is clear to everyone across the continent that South Africa has become anti-African in policy and practice,” said Mr Pambo, adding that the EFF “will push for a borderless Africa, with one currency and one common language”.
Ms Liezl van der Merwe of the Inkatha Freedom Party argued in support of the budget and said it must be used to fix the many problems facing the country’s Home Affairs Department. “This budget needs to fix many problems but others will require real political will and real patriotism. We need to act now to secure our porous borders,” said Ms Van der Merwe.
“We have a serious problem of illegal immigrants throughout South Africa, even around this very Parliamentary precinct, businesses are operated by undocumented migrants from many different continents, who flout our legislation, don’t pay tax or VAT, and pay their staff less than the National Minimum Wage. What I am speaking about has got nothing to do with xenophobia, when the safety and security of our state and the well-being of our citizens are threatened, we need to act,” she said.
African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) Leader, Rev Kenneth Meshoe, also raised concerns about the country’s border control systems, which he said “leave much to be desired as our borders remain porous”.
“Many illegal immigrants who get involved in criminal activities remain invisible and untraceable by investigators because their fingerprints are not on record. Let us tighten border control and let all visitors be properly documented,” said Rev Meshoe.
By Sakhile Mokoena
12 July 2019
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