SOUTH AFRICA plans to come up with stringent controls to prevent congestion at the Beitbridge Border post and to curb an influx of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants.
BY OUR STAFF
This comes after Zimbabwe accused its southern neighbour of being responsible for the congestion at Beitbridge, which saw queues snaking for more than 10 kilometres.
South Africa’s Home Affairs minister, Naledi Pandor said the issue of illegal immigrants was a sore point and she was in touch with her Zimbabwean counterparts about it.
“We need to improve border management ourselves as a country and as a department I do think we should make use of new technology and monitor the borders and really have a sense of where the weak points are and ensure that we do address them,” she said. “I understand fences are down, they’re not being repaired quickly, and all of that I think is something we should be responding to more efficiently.”
In an interview with a South African television station, Pandor seemed resigned, saying she was unsure how to deal with illegal Zimbabwean immigrants.
Scores of Zimbabweans based in South Africa were stranded at the Beitbridge Border as they returned to their bases. Zimbabwean authorities have blamed their South African counterparts for the slow pace on their side, saying this was clogging free movement between the two countries.
Pandor said her ministry would look into what caused congestion at the border, so there will be no repeat at Easter.
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“We are going to look at the statistics and address exactly who we are dealing with,” she said. “Are these visitors or do we have some other phenomenon occurring? I want us to investigate exactly what we are dealing with, but for purposes of Easter we will increase staff. I will also secure some porter cabins to have greater number of facilities for queues.”
She said she hoped that at Easter, queues would be managed better, adding she would address all the administrative issues.
Zimbabwe faced an unprecedented economic and social collapse forcing millions to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, where most of them resided illegally.
South Africa, in 2010, began a process of documenting Zimbabweans living in that country, but not all were accounted for, leaving several thousands more still living there illegally.
