Johnathan Paoli
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba arrived at the Beitbridge Border Post between Zimbabwe and Limpopo on Monday for an oversight visit of South Africa’s dysfunctional borders.
ActionSA launched the first leg of its Nationwide Border Tour on Sunday, starting with the country’s Northern Borders with Zimbabwe, to highlight how the ruling party has allowed the continued decay of the country’s borders leading to porous fences and dysfunctional border posts.
Mashaba said by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s own admission last year, the country has been suffering from porous borders where people are allowed to illegally cross and smuggle goods, despite millions spent on border fences, they offer little to no protection.
The party leader said the government was aware of illegal immigration but lacked the political will to address it.
Mashaba said a major consequence was that it left the country vulnerable to challenges including illegal immigration, smuggling of counterfeit goods and drugs, human trafficking, stock theft, poaching and lost trade revenue adding that porous borders are emblematic of the rise in lawlessness in South Africa.
“Immigrants are not to be blamed for South Africa’s porous borders, but the ruling party which has allowed the country’s borders to decay to this extent and for the dysfunction at the Department of Home Affairs,” Mashaba said.
He further said that the poorest communities are most affected by illegal immigration, since they receive counterfeit goods and drugs, and those are the people whose animals were stolen.
The party leader said at ActionSA’s inaugural policy conference held earlier this year, hundreds of the party delegates produced proposals that embraced legal immigration for economic growth and prosperity, but insisted on the condition that they come to the country legally and adhere to all laws and procedures.
Mashaba expressed the party’s campaign at exposing the alleged decay in border operations and finding solutions to repair the borders in order to assist a return to prosperity for the nation.
“South Africa is too important to allow a continued decline into lawlessness, and ActionSA is committed to turning this around,” Mashaba said.
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