Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, said the government has plans to upgrade six points of entry into the country with the latest infrastructure and relevant technology in an effort to modernise and upgrade the posts to be on par with the current global best practices on border management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing media in Pretoria on Wednesday, Motsoaledi said the main objective of upgrading border posts is to make it easier for law-abiding people and companies to easily enter and exit South Africa through the borders while the illicit movement of persons and goods is nipped in the bud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Officials are committed to making the country’s border posts safer, less porous and more efficient in the facilitation and easing of trade, as well as the legitimate movement of people,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The South African government is committed to putting in the latest infrastructure and relevant technology in its efforts to modernise and upgrade our ports to be on par with the current global best practices on border management,\u201d Motsoaledi added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Motsoaledi noted that South Africa has 72 ports of entry, 53 of which are land, 11 are international airports, and eight are seaports \u2013 all of which are now operated by the Border Management Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOf the 53 land ports of entry, we have now earmarked six of our largest and busiest, by traffic volume, for redevelopment in order to address the congestion.<\/strong> The outcome of the redevelopment of these ports of entry will be used as a blueprint in the long term for all other South Africa\u2019s land ports of entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe primary intention is to ensure the realisation of regional economic integration in the SADC region while facilitating the realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Motsoaledi said in order to ensure that ongoing operations at each of the designated Ports of Entry are not interrupted, construction will be undertaken in phases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDuring construction, the project is expected to create in the order of 38,000 jobs in areas around the six designated ports of entry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The six ports of entry earmarked for upgrading or redevelopment are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Minister, the redeveloped ports of entry will result in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa\u2019s government has requested proposals from private companies to help it upgrade its six busiest land border posts and ease congestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt has taken a while for us to get to this point. I would like to commend my team consisting of officials from the Border Management Authority, the Department of Home Affairs, The Presidency\u2019s Infrastructure SA, the National Treasury, SARS, the DBSA\u2019s Infrastructure Fund, and the transactional advisors, Bowmans and Ernst & Young, for their hard work in getting us to this point,\u201d Motsoaledi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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