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Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi released the draft Single Border Policy (OSBP) for public consultation.
The policy aims to harmonize the movement of people and goods between South Africa’s land ports of entry and its neighboring countries, as well as address congestion that creates delays.
The document also highlights a number of flaws with the country’s current border system, including:
- Deficient controls and deficient management that negatively affect the territorial integrity of the country;
- Border infrastructure, such as fences and patrol roads, is inadequate. The state’s ability to protect this environment is limited and exposes much of the land border to strategic vulnerability, contributing to problems such as wildlife poaching, human trafficking and smuggling;
- The location, number and layout of the country’s 72 ports of entry are a legacy of the country’s colonial and apartheid past.
To address these issues, the government will establish a new Border Management Authority (BMA) that will be at the forefront of the fight against illegal and unauthorized movements at the country’s borders.
The BMA will be established as a national public entity and will report to the Minister of the Interior.
Border posts
The Interior Department said it is also remodeling six of South Africa’s ports of entry, including:
- Beit Bridge (Zimbabwe);
- Lebombo (Mozambique);
- Oshoek (Swaziland);
- Kopfontein (Botswana);
- Maseru Bridge (Lesotho);
- Ficksburg (Lesotho).
This major project aims to modernize these ports into unique “ world-class ” border posts, with construction to be completed in 2025.
“The benefit to the South African economy is that goods and people will move through these six busiest land ports at a faster rate and in a more effective and efficient manner,” the department said.
“This will have specific and direct benefits for traders, carriers and all those who transport goods, as the intention is that all movement through these ports be processed once and jointly by South Africa and the corresponding neighboring country.”
South Africa and its neighboring countries currently use a two-stop system in which exit procedures are carried out by a state on one side of the border, while entry procedures are carried out on the other side.
The department said the ideal solution is to set up OSBP where vehicles, goods and people stop only once for border paperwork.
Through a negotiated bilateral agreement, officials from both countries will operate in a common control zone where all procedures will be harmonized.
New trade agreement
The new border policy comes after South Africa entered the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on January 1, 2021.
The historic AfCFTA agreement has been signed by 54 of the 55 member states of the African Union (AU), and 34 countries have already deposited their instruments of ratification with the AU Commission and have become state parties.
The AfCFTA aims to build an integrated market in Africa that will see a group of more than one billion people with a combined GDP of approximately US $ 3.3 trillion.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the AfCFTA will increase intra-African trade from the current 10% -16% to about 52% by 2022.
“The AfCFTA is a significant advance that will change trade patterns and has the potential to transform African economies,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in November.
“It will promote economic diversification, the benefit of our minerals and resources and the addition of value to take advantage of the opportunities that arise from an increasingly open African continental market.
“We expect that in the new year 2021, preferential trade in Africa will start with significant product coverage and expand even more in the coming years,” he said.
Read: New ID System Planned for South Africa – Here’s What You Need to Know
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