Deputy Minister Fatima Chohan on ports of entry readiness for festive season

The Department of Home Affairs would like to present its plans ahead of the 2018/19 festive season, which ranks among our peak periods annually. This ushers in a period of heightened movement across our ports of entry, and of course heightened demand for our services particularly passport applications.

The department would like to confirm its readiness to handle increased volumes of travellers at ports of entry in particular the air and land ports. This increase in movement of people and goods, across borders, is due to the inflow and outflow of travellers of various categories (tourists, cross-border workers, business, academic and educational activities). The movements we facilitate into and out of South Africa tend to peak during the festive season, school holidays and the Easter period.

In the 2017/18 festive season, a total of 8 468 262 movements was captured, comprising arrivals and departures of citizens and foreigners. Of these, 2 304 449 were citizens’ movements and 6 163 813 were foreigners’ movements.

The highest arrivals from the SADC region were from Lesotho, at 758 519, followed by Zimbabwe (712 688), Mozambique (398 684), Swaziland (306 682) and Botswana (256 793). In the same period, top 10 ports for all movements were OR Tambo International Airport (1 569 100), Beit Bridge (1 215 845), Lebombo (936 415), Ficksburg (701 588), Maseru Bridge (699 186), Cape Town International Airport (555 451), Oshoek (384 076), Kopfontein (236 561), Ramathlabama (176 348) and Groblers Bridge (165 903). The highest movements were from our continent, Africa, with over 7 million movements recorded.

In preparation for 2018/19 festive period the Information Technology (IT) team of Home Affairs is currently conducting a clean sweep operation to ensure that all IT equipment is in a good condition in our ports of entry to ensure optimal functioning. This includes testing of all computers and scanners. The team is also setting up overflow areas for processing of travellers in Maseru Bridge, Lebombo and Beit Bridge in order to cater for the volumes expected.

A team of IT support staff will remain at the high volume ports of entry from 5 December 2018 to 9 January 2019 to provide on-site support.

It is imperative that ports of entry are adequately prepared to facilitate traveller movement and to curb illegal movement and transgressions. Security dynamics and risks during peak periods include fraudulent documents, undocumented travellers and poor access control due to congested roads, hence we plan meticulously for ports and borderline activities with other law enforcement agencies.

Increases in traveller movement exert additional strain on resources and pose security risks for South Africa, and for the six countries with which it shares borders in the region.

As in previous years, stakeholders at ports of entry, and partners from neighbouring countries, have agreed to a comprehensive operational plan in order to support facilitation of movement in this period – 5 December 2018 to 9 January 2019.

For enhanced collaboration and integrated port operations, government departments and agencies involved in border management will take a joint approach for the festive season operation.

Operational hours will be extended for busy ports of entry, covering pre-festive season movements, the festive season period and the re-opening of schools. A table showing extended hours is at the end of the statement. The Department of Home Affairs will deploy 425 additional staff at busiest ports.

Our mission is to deliver efficient services at ports of entry, whilst ensuring that only legitimate people and goods are allowed to enter or depart. Legitimate trade and travel will be facilitated and potential violators will be deterred.

The Minister, Deputy Minister, Acting Director-General and other senior officials will be visiting the ports of entry to monitor the operations for the entire period.

We implore all travellers leaving and entering South Africa to ensure that all their travel documents are in order to avoid unnecessary delays in ports. These include passports, visas, health certificates, permits for specified goods, plants and animals and vehicles insurance and bank authorised cross-border documents for vehicles.

We wish everyone a safe and pleasant festive season.