Johnathan Paoli
THE Border Management Authority (BMA) announced on Sunday that it processed over five million travelers through the country’s borders over the festive period.
Commissioner of the BMA Mike Masiapato said the 2023/2024 festive season was a remarkable time where a noticeable increase in the movement of persons and goods entering and exiting the Republic of South Africa was experienced.
Masiapato said that between 6 December 2023 and 18 January 2024, the agency lawfully processed 5 009 096 288 travelers across 71 ports of entry, a one million increase in travelers compared to the previous year, although one million less than the pre-COVID-19 average numbers of about six million travelers.
The commissioner said that of the 5 096 288 travelers, 216 594 used private vehicles, 21 502 mini-bus taxis, 6 443 buses and 55 765 trucks through the movement control system, with more than 13 050 aircraft having been processed at international airports and approximately 709 vessels at seaports.
The OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) served the largest number of travelers, which was around 993 759, with the Lebombo land port of entry to Mozambique coming second with 755 066 visitors, followed by the Beitbridge land port of entry to Zimbabwe with 745 563 travelers.
Compared to the 2022/2023 festive period, ORTIA, Lebombo, and Beitbridge recorded an increase in traveler volume of 22%, 24%, and 25%, respectively.
Masiapato said that the improvement could be seen as a result of increased human resource capacity and the operating hours in some selected ports of entry which do not operate on a 24-hour basis.
“Although our primary job as the BMA is to facilitate the legitimate movement of people, we also have to deal with individuals who attempt to illegitimately move through our ports of entry and the border law enforcement areas,” the commissioner said.
He told the media that the agency detected about 15 924 individuals who were attempting to enter South Africa without requisite documentation, with the majority of interceptions occurring at the Lebombo land port of entry with 6 808, followed by 1 891 at the Beitbridge land port of entry.
“In this instance, after intercepting them, we took their fingerprints, declared them undesirable and banned them from re-entering South Africa for five years and kept the record in the Biometric Movement Control System and got them deported,” Masiapato said.
In addition, 6,455 travelers were denied entry into SA for being undesirable, including those who committed crimes in other countries and appeared on the Interpol red list as well as approximately 4 626 travelers refused entry for having invalid passports, fraudulent visas or failing to produce valid yellow fever certificates.
During this period, the agency also observed an increased detection rate of the undesirables due to the utilisation of the Biometric Movement Control Systems (BMCS), with a total deportation of 27 005 people who attempted to enter the country illegally.
The commissioner said the BMA imposed 98 administrative fines to various conveyancers especially bus companies to the value of R3 540 000 for transporting illegal migrants at the cost of R15 000 per person, and collected about R9.8 million in outstanding fines from 25 bus companies.
The commissioner raised his concern at public transporting companies that continue to transport illegal migrants, but said that vigilance was improving.
“In this regard, they have committed to ensuring that valid passports would be required from all travelers when procuring cross border tickets and for entering into the bus on travel day,” Masiapato said.
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