Mogomotsi Mogodiri
Pretoria - The deployment of border guards as part of building capacity for the newly established Border Management Authority (BMA) marks a watershed moment in the new drive to enforce our country’s immigration laws.
At the Beitbridge border post in Musina in Limpopo, Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, deployed 200 border guards and went on to hand over vehicles that will patrol our country’s porous borders.
This significant step is a breath of fresh air in the midst of brazen lawlessness and criminality by, mainly, undocumented immigrants.
Alarmingly, many of these foreigners are assisted and abetted by unpatriotic Home Affairs officials, police officers, army personnel and, worse still, ordinary South Africans.
As one proudly South African tweeted about that momentous moment, it was indeed a big day in our country as we launched the BMA in defence of our sovereignty and promotion of national security.
The BMA is established to facilitate legal and legitimate cross-border movement of people and goods into and out of our country.
It also has as its function the curbing of criminality around the border and promoting co-ordination and co-operation between all immigration role players, including communities along our country’s borders.
The border guard deployment is a programme that forms an integral part of the fight against lawlessness, crime and grime.
This first cohort of border guards has been deployed in a bid to improve management of and access control along our country’s borders.
The 200 border guards are stationed at five ports of entry, and will be strategically deployed to patrol identified stretches of our country’s eastern borderline.
These hot spots have hitherto proved to be a hive of illegal crossings and other criminal activity, including vehicles that are stolen in our country and smuggled into neighbouring countries.
There are also disturbing incidents of human, organ and drug trafficking and other illicit trades conducted across those hot spots.
To beef up border security and prevent illegal migration, especially given the current chaotic situation, we need a comprehensive, integrated plan that is adequately resourced.
We also need decisive leadership that has nerves of steel as criminals and facilitators alike will be more ruthless and unscrupulous in their attacks to frustrate or block the patriotic efforts to enforce the law.
Reading the report of the ministerial committee reviewing permits and visas that was presented to the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee by Motsoaledi, it is clear his work is cut out for him and he needs all the support he can get to not only flush out, but also press charges against, all corrupt, unpatriotic officials (erstwhile and current) who are implicated in these dastardly crimes.
The report looks and smells like an illegal immigration cesspool, with South Africans, not only Home Affairs officials, implicated and also complicit. Our country has been sold for pieces of silver and our sovereignty, let alone national security, obliterated.
Currently, there are violent and deadly crimes, including illegal mining and killings at taverns that are mainly perpetrated by illegal immigrants.
Lately, it has also been reported that a local farm owner and 97 illegal immigrants from Lesotho were arrested on a farm in Gauteng for being involved in illegal mining, human trafficking and other heinous crimes.
While carrying out that sting operation, illegal guns and 570 rounds of ammunition were found and seized by a national multidisciplinary team established to clamp down on illicit mining activities.
Social media is also abuzz with images of 150 illegal immigrants from Lesotho being arrested at a roadblock in the Free State. It is reported that these callous criminals shot at our police and army when stopped. The brazenness is mind boggling.
The illegal immigration headache in our country is more of a South African mindset and leadership issue than a foreigner problem. What do I imply by stating that what we are facing is caused, facilitated and abetted, in no small measure, by South Africans?
Let’s start with our mindset.
South Africans are renowned and notorious for breaking the law, even unprovoked. Just look at the taxi drivers as a typical example. We also break the law to “enforce our rights” as if we are fond of cutting off our proverbial noses to spite our faces.
Foreigners have been watching and they have now climbed on the galloping lawlessness bandwagon, something they do not even dream of doing in their countries.
Instead of playing the blame game, we should shoulder some of the responsibility for the disgusting lawlessness on the part of foreigners. We are reaping the whirlwind of our own rogue behaviour.
Simply put, we are our own worst enemies. Hence, foreigners undermine and insult us at will and they break our laws with impunity, while threatening or even attacking anyone who stands in their criminal way.
Unless we have a deep introspection and then change our wayward ways, there will soon be no country to talk of as foreigners would have completely destroyed it.
Behaviour and conduct are either an incentive or deterrent. We either turn a blind eye or join foreigners in acts of criminality, including not reporting the presence of illegal immigrants. Foreigners are interpreting our omission or commission as a licence to steal, kill and destroy.
We even go further and rent them our properties for accommodation and conducting business that is mainly illicit. Instead of verifying the status of these people as the law demands, a toxic combination of hunger, poverty, greed and lawlessness informs us to let them do as they please.
Those who are in our country with “good” intentions but do not fall into any category, especially critical skills, are employed in our homes, restaurants, farms and other places because they are a pliant, desperate and vulnerable army of slaves.
Once again, we are breaking the law as Section 38 of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 states, among others, that: “No person shall employ an illegal foreigner, a foreigner whose status does not authorise him or her to be employed by such person or a foreigner on terms and conditions or in a capacity different from those contemplated in such foreigners status.”
There is also the not-so-small matter of the proliferation of spazas run by migrants, especially of Somali and Pakistani descent. They have obliterated local township businesses and taken over this multibillion-rand industry.
Astonishingly, South Africans do not see anything wrong with this economic coup that has brought devastation to our lives and country’s economy as these businesses are unregistered, unregulated and do not pay taxes.
Rumours also abound regarding the true nature and funding of these businesses. Money laundering and funding for terrorist activities cannot be easily ruled out, and our intelligence agencies must up their game to stem the tide. These businesses also contravene health and environmental laws as they tend to sell expired goods, with the operators even sleeping inside these spazas.
Why are authorities not clamping down on these shops? And why are South Africans supporting their own destruction by buying from these illegal establishments? It’s a classic case of a defeated nation.
The embarrassing fact that the police and other law enforcement agencies do not enforce (a conundrum) the immigration, labour and other relevant pieces of legislation is also complicating the already disgusting situation.
Section 41 of the Immigration Act empowers immigration officers and police to demand proper identification from anyone, and if that person fails to produce it, she/he can be detained pending proper identification.
This provision should be rigorously enforced and we should not believe the lie that demanding identification is synonymous with the apartheid dompas.
Indeed, there are resource challenges, but that doesn’t fully explain the lethargy and failures of our law enforcement agencies, not to mention the rampant corruption within their ranks.
The establishment of the BMA and the national multi-disciplinary team to curb illegal mining is a breath of fresh air. It bucks the trend of government departments and agencies working in silos, and also not collaborating with communities.
While being an undoubtedly welcome initiative, the establishment of the BMA should not be viewed as a panacea to our country’s immigration mess. Our country needs an integrated approach that ensures all hands are on deck. The migration from Hanis to Abis (over and above biometric, there’s an addition of an iris and face that must match the fingerprint) should be complemented by other technologies like bodycams, drones and even a fusion centre that will bring alignment and co-ordination of efforts.
Combined with strong and visionary leadership devoid of legislative and policy flip-flopping and missteps, research, analysis, a coherent and adequately funded strategy, a complete overhaul of our immigration regime, review of all visas and permits and technology, the war against lawlessness and criminality will be won.
For victory to be certain, the urgent need for a fundamental (national) paradigm shift that is anchored on patriotism and comprehensive massification of civic education, cannot be overemphasised.
With the proliferation of illegal guns, ammunition and random but seemingly planned and co-ordinated violent attacks on South Africans, we need not be reminded that we have an inalienable right to self-defence.
Pretoria News