Pretoria – South Africa and Botswana have officially introduced a pilot project that will make travelling much easier for the cross-border community of Tshidilamolomo.
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba inaugurated the pilot of the border crossing point for the village of Tshidilamolomo in the North West, on Tuesday.
The village straddles South Africa and Botswana due to what Minister Gigaba described as the “irrational borderlines” drawn by colonialists.
The project flows out of a discussion between President Jacob Zuma and President Ian Khama, which began in 2011.
The two Presidents recognised the movement challenges faced by the village of Tshidilamolomo, which is separated by the South Africa-Botswana border. The shared border is 1 840kms -- the longest border South Africa shares with any of its neighbours.
Many people in Tshidilamolomo need to cross the borderline on a weekly or even daily basis to study, work, shop and visit family members. It is impractical for them to travel to the nearest ports of entry -- Bray and Ramatlabama -- which are over two hours away by car.
Minister Gigaba said officials from South Africa and Botswana have worked closely together to develop a solution that facilitates the easy movement of members of the Tshidilamolomo community, while ensuring that movement is regulated by the respective governments.
“Thus, after a joint borderline survey, we have agreed to pilot a community crossing point in Tshidilamolomo.
“Each government will enrol its nationals residing in the area by ensuring they have machine-readable passports and are proven residents based on affidavits from traditional leaders and local councillors as required.
“Residents will be given a border pass document, which will enable them to cross at the community crossing point. We will capture and verify each traveller’s identity using biometrics -- fingerprint scan and photo -- on each entry and exit,” said Minister Gigaba.
The pilot project is scheduled for 12 months. Minister Gigaba said they will use this as an opportunity to work out the modalities of the system to ensure the efficient facilitation of movement for community members.
The Minister said the use of community crossing points, where appropriate, is one of several initiatives the Department of Home Affairs will take in the coming years to ease movement for legitimate travellers.
Blocking illegal travellers
Minister Gigaba said the system will be closely monitored to filter out illegal travellers.
“While the vast majority of travellers crossing borders are legitimate, law abiding citizens, there is a small minority of criminals who seek to conceal themselves amid these migration flows.
“These include people fleeing arrest and prosecution for crimes committed in other countries and transnational criminals such as traders in illicit goods, human traffickers, people smugglers and terrorists.
“The challenge for immigration authorities is to design systems which make it easy and efficient for legitimate travellers to do so, while making it difficult to impossible for illegitimate travellers to do so,” said the Minister.
He said the Department of Home Affairs is committed to easing travel for legitimate visitors to South Africa, especially for Southern African Development Community and African citizens.
“We are committed to managing immigration for development and for contributing to regional integration, and our nation’s foreign policy objectives of a better Africa and a better world.” – SAnews.gov.za
