The South African Parliament has asked government role players involved in implementation of the Border Management Authority Bill to iron out their differences regarding the Bill, which was presented to the Parliamentary Committee by the Department of Home Affairs (Interior) on Tuesday.

The Bill aims to bring all authorities managing the country’s ports of entry under one roof.

Some believe that this will help prevent corruption, check the high volume of illegal goods entering the country as well as undocumented foreign nationals who slip through the country’s porous borders.

However, the Department of Home Affairs, the police and the revenue service seem to have sharp differences about the Bill.

The country has 72 ports of entry and the Department of Home Affairs says that the number is too large. The department’s Director-General, Mkuseni Apleni, said all the country’s air, sea and land borders are porous.

There is limited surveillance capability and coverage over the country’s airspace, with many small airstrips close to the borderline. Over 39 million people move through 72 ports of entry annually, through the extensive land and coastal orders, with a high number of ports of entry, cross border communities, inadequate border fences and patrol roads.

It is envisaged that the proposed Border Management Authority (BMA) will start operating in April next year. Explaining its functions, Apleni said: The BMA will assume control of all ports of entry, I must emphasise immigration control, and customs control, human health, bio-security, inspections of animals, fish and associated products.

The Cabinet approved the Bill two years ago. However, trhe South African Police Service (SAPS), the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and Department Home Affairs have been haggling over its provisions.

The SAPS Head of Border Control, Major-General David Chulembe, cautioned that law enforcement is the responsibility of the police. These are responsibilities we cannot cede to any other authority like making arrests, opening dockets, investigate trans-national crimes.

The chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Lemias Mashile, called on the parties concerned to sort out their differences over the envisaged Border Management Authority. You obviously having sticky points that you need to reconsider. You must be able to find each other on this issue. We have been working on it since 2009, so we need progress.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK