The Border Management Authority (BMA) prevented more than 58,000 people from entering the country illegally during the festive season. This is a 215% increase in preventing illegal border crossings from the 2023 festive season. BMA commissioner Michael Masiapato alongside Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, briefed the media on the 2024 festive season operation.
DRONES HAILED FOR ENHANCING BORDER SECURITY
According to Masiapoto, this is more than double the number of interceptions compared to the 27,000 during the 2023-2024 festive period. The commissioner credited their success to the use of drones and digital transformation at the five ports of entry. The drones were deployed at Beitbridge, Maseru Bridge, Lebombo, Kopfontein, and Oshoek ports of entry with forty-two pilots assigned to operate the drones. Masiapoto said that the border guards participated in 237 joint law enforcement operations, conducted vehicle patrols, and foot patrols, and raided about 1,115 hotspot areas within the border law enforcement areas. "During these operations, the border guards detected and apprehended about 58,394 individuals who were attempting to enter South Africa illegally. We still have a long way to go to reach our ultimate destination, but every day we're moving faster in the right direction towards more secure and efficient border management," Masiapato said. He added that the majority of the people who were intercepted were from Lesotho, followed by Zimbabwe and Malawi.
HEALTH MATTERS
He told the media that their team of health specialists screened more than 1,7 million travellers for various infectious and communicable diseases, which is an increase from the 1,4m travellers screened during the 2023/2024 festive period. "Thirteen were refused entry by our port health specialists for presenting fraudulent yellow fever certificates while arriving from yellow fever endemic countries. In this festive period, our health specialists tested about 759 travellers for malaria and detected 40 positive cases at Beitbridge border port and referred them to the nearest medical facility for further processing in accordance with the directives from the National Department of Health in compliance with the protocols of the World Health Organisation," he added. Masiapato also announced that OR Tambo International Airport facilitated the majority of travellers at over a million, followed by ?Beitbridge land port of entry to Zimbabwe at 645,590 travellers, and then followed by Lebombo land port of entry to Mozambique at 571,131.
