The country’s Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi on
Monday told broadcaster eNCA that the country was in the process of appointing
commissioners to strengthen the Border Management Authority in dealing with
illegal immigration.
Motsoaledi, however, warned that the measures to curb
illegal immigration could result in loss of lives since no system was
waterproof.
Zimbabwe’s borders are still closed for cross-border travel
to curb the spread of COVID-19, which is forcing people who survive on
cross-border trading to cross through illegal points of entry into South
Africa.
Motsoaledi cited unemployment and hunger as the major push
factors for illegal immigration, particularly for Zimbabweans.
“We are dealing here with social and economic systems in
neighbouring countries,” Motsoaledi said.
“The borders during the apartheid were electric fence, the
army, and all that, which we removed because we thought we are a democracy. Now
we realise we made a terrible mistake by removing those and replacing them with
nothing.
“South Africa is shortly setting up the Border Management
Authority, whose mandate will be to secure the borders and stem the tide of
illegal border crossings.”
Zimbabwe’s Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe said he
was in a meeting when he was contacted for comment.
Motsoaledi said South Africa had to tighten security
because the “desperate” Zimbabweans had improvised other tactics to defy the
current security measures to eke out a living in the neighbouring country.
“People are illegally crossing through the border and the
army is deployed where they cross over. Security is tight, but people still
cross because this is out of desperation from what is happening in neighbouring
countries, especially Zimbabwe,” he said.
“They go down the ladder to then cross the river but the
army is waiting for them. We need a commissioner of the Border Management
Authority, whose job is to deal with borders and we are already in the process
of appointing two deputy commissioners.”
Motsoaledi, however, said ending illegal immigration
depended on the neighbouring countries’ willingness to fix their economies and
create jobs for their citizens.
South Africa, the most economically developed country in
the southern African region, attracts thousands of migrants annually who seek
jobs at farms and factories, but some get into the country through illegal
cross points.
South Africa is home to more than three million
Zimbabweans, a majority of them undocumented immigrants, who fled the country
in search of jobs following the collapse of the economy two decades ago.
Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment