The 2003 Cabinet decision to pull the South African Defence Force (SANDF) off our borders must be reversed with immediate effect. The Border Control Operational Coordinating Committee (BCOCC) has had five years to seal off our porous borders, but has achieved absolutely nothing. The Auditor General's report is damning in the extreme - and the entities that this organisation was supposed to pull together, are in utter chaos.
The net result of the above is that millions of people are flowing into the country illegally. It is not possible to ensure that refugees and people fleeing political instability are treated humanely if proper systems are not in place. The undetected flow of illegal foreigners into our country places an enormous strain on our state system and further exacerbates social conditions that breed crime: unemployment and lack of access to basic services.
Speaking in Parliament today at a joint sitting of committees, from which Home Affairs and the SANDF were conspicuously absent, the BCOCC admitted that security at our borders is "poor", and that in the past few years they have launched a few new initiatives, but that "the beneficial impact was coincidental".
One of the most serious issues raised was that there was no integrated anti-corruption strategy to protect us against our own officials and their corruption, fraud, misappropriation of state funds, aiding and abetting illegal foreigners, and the illegal issuing of documents or goods. The BCOCC said corruption has penetrated the police, customs, immigration, cleaners and security contractors.
The BCOCC still has no complete overall strategic plan relating to borderline policing, nor a divisional policy relating to borderline operations.
There is also no specialised operational support structure for borderline crime intelligence; no examination of our border fences; there is a 71% under-capacity rate for land borders; sea borderline operations have a 96% under-capacity rate and air borderline operations have no permanent staff. Air borderline operations do not have the correct equipment to detect low flying aircraft. It has been noted that perlemoen smugglers make use of low-lying aircraft to smuggle goods out of the country.
There are frequently no fences in place and no compensating equipment such as helicopters, horses or quad bikes to patrol borders in areas not accessible by conventional vehicles, and there are shortages of radios, cell phones and uniforms.
Above all there are no centrally-collected and analysed statistics relating to border crimes, illegal foreigners, repatriated illegal immigrants and criminal syndicates connected with trafficking in people, goods and weapons. This absence makes a mockery of any attempt to combat cross-border crime.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler-Barnard, DA spokesperson on Safety & Security, May 28 2008
