Six major upgrades planned for South Africa’s busiest border posts

Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, said the government has plans to upgrade six points of entry into the country with the latest infrastructure and relevant technology in an effort to modernise and upgrade the posts to be on par with the current global best practices on border management.

Addressing media in Pretoria on Wednesday, Motsoaledi said the main objective of upgrading border posts is to make it easier for law-abiding people and companies to easily enter and exit South Africa through the borders while the illicit movement of persons and goods is nipped in the bud.

“Officials are committed to making the country’s border posts safer, less porous and more efficient in the facilitation and easing of trade, as well as the legitimate movement of people,” he said.

“The South African government is committed to putting in the latest infrastructure and relevant technology in its efforts to modernise and upgrade our ports to be on par with the current global best practices on border management,” Motsoaledi added.

Motsoaledi noted that South Africa has 72 ports of entry, 53 of which are land, 11 are international airports, and eight are seaports – all of which are now operated by the Border Management Authority.

“Of the 53 land ports of entry, we have now earmarked six of our largest and busiest, by traffic volume, for redevelopment in order to address the congestion. The outcome of the redevelopment of these ports of entry will be used as a blueprint in the long term for all other South Africa’s land ports of entry.

“The primary intention is to ensure the realisation of regional economic integration in the SADC region while facilitating the realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area,” the Minister said.

Motsoaledi said in order to ensure that ongoing operations at each of the designated Ports of Entry are not interrupted, construction will be undertaken in phases.

“During construction, the project is expected to create in the order of 38,000 jobs in areas around the six designated ports of entry,” he said.

The six ports of entry earmarked for upgrading or redevelopment are:

• Beitbridge – Zimbabwe
• Lebombo – Mozambique
• Maseru Bridge – Lesotho
• Ficksburg – Lesotho
• Kopfontein – Botswana
• Oshoek – Eswatini

According to the Minister, the redeveloped ports of entry will result in:

• Efficient cross-border management of the movement of people, goods and services.
• Improved administration of persons entering and leaving the Republic.
• Better regional economic integration and enhanced support for the African Continental Free Trade Area.
• Improved revenue collection and addressing leakages caused by the illegal movement of goods and illicit financial flows.
• Protecting local industry from harmful imports and exports.
• Effective migration management, including curbing illegal migration.

South Africa’s government has requested proposals from private companies to help it upgrade its six busiest land border posts and ease congestion.

“It has taken a while for us to get to this point. I would like to commend my team consisting of officials from the Border Management Authority, the Department of Home Affairs, The Presidency’s Infrastructure SA, the National Treasury, SARS, the DBSA’s Infrastructure Fund, and the transactional advisors, Bowmans and Ernst & Young, for their hard work in getting us to this point,” Motsoaledi said.

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