Question NW108 to the Minister of Home Affairs
22 February 2023 - NW108
van der Merwe, Ms LL to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1)Whether, following the deployment of border guards of the Border Management Authority (BMA) at the Beitbridge border post and footage taken over the festive season detailing illegal movement and/or activity between Zimbabwe and the Republic (details furnished), he has met with the Minister of Police, Mr B H Cele, to discuss the SA Police Service (SAPS) allegedly sabotaging the work of the BMA; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) given that the specified border post has been known for many years for the corrupt activities of officials from his department and SAPS, what are the reasons that (a) he has taken no steps to end such corrupt activities and (b) staff from SAPS and his department who are deployed there have not been removed and/or replaced; (3) whether, given that with rising levels of lawlessness in the Republic, the rise of illegal migration and the movement of illicit goods and trafficking of humans being commonplace at the specified border post, and noting that the BMA border guards were touted by the Government and the President of the Republic, Mr M C Ramaphosa, as the answer to the crisis notwithstanding that their work is being hampered, he will raise the matter at Cabinet level; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (4) with regard to cross-border movement, what (a) total number of foreign nationals in possession of (i) refugee and/or (ii) asylum-seeker permits left the shores of the Republic in (aa) December 2022 and (bb) January 2023 to return to their countries of origin and (b) is the breakdown of the specified figure in terms of countries of origin?
Reply:
1) On 14 July 2022 the BMA deployed the first 200 cohort of the Border Guards in various ports of entry and some vulnerable segments of the borderline. Forty (40) Border Guards were deployed at Beit Bridge Port of Entry and are responsible for the implementation of border law enforcement in conjunction with members of the SAPS. This is due to the fact that the Border Guards are not yet fully capacitated to full take over the functions. Currently, these functions are implemented through a Multi-Agency approach which is coordinated by the BMA through a Multi-Party Agreement. In fact, the BMA would fully take over the functions from the 1st of April 2023 through the implementation of an integrated model.
The port operational functioning has a process flow managed through various cascading Border structures overseen on quarterly basis by the Legislated Committees, the Border Technical Committee (BTC) and the Inter Ministerial Consultative Committee (IMCC). The two latter structures the BTC and IMCC were designed to deal with all challenges that cannot be solved by the Border Management operational structures. The BTC and IMCC have already met 3 times in 2022 and the final 4th quarter meeting will take place respectively on the 15th and 24th March 2023. In that upcoming meeting the BMA will present the feedback review and reflections on operations conducted in the border environment especially during December 2022/January 2023 festive season. It should be noted that Ministers of Police and Home Affairs are permanent members of IMCC, so all issues that are part of the review and reflections of the festive season would be dealt with in the meeting of 24 March 2023.
(2)(a) With regard to challenges of insider threat and possible corrupt activities by officials, the BMA would through during the integration process embark on extensive vetting processes of all officials to be integrated into the BMA as required by section 13 of the BMA Act, 2020.
(2)(b) The BMA and SAPS have entered into an Implementation Protocol in accordance with the provisions of the BMA Act which details the coordination and cooperation between the two state organs towards the implementation of border law enforcement functions. The Protocols were signed by both BMA and SAPS Commissioners on the 9th of June 2022.
(3) Matters, including challenges, related to border management are discussed by the BMA’s Inter-Ministerial Consultative Committee (IMCC) on Border Management which comprises of ten (10) members of Cabinet including the Ministers of Police, Home Affairs, Defence, State Security and others. Identified interventions to resolve such challenges are endorsed by the Committee for implementation.
(4) The number of refugees who travel across borders cannot be determined due to the fact that they do not travel with passports reflecting their asylum seeker status. Those who happen to travel do not inform the department and the responsible unit (Asylum Seeker Management) that they are leaving the country. Therefore, the Department is unable to provide the required statistics.
END