Parly called on to summon Home Affairs, BMA over Lebombo crisis

FILE | Border Management Authority (BMA) border guard checks passport.

Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) has called on the Parliament Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs to summon the department and the Border Management Authority (BMA) to account for what they called an embarrassing situation at the Lebombo Border Gate in Komatipoort, Mpumalanga.

The border post has been experiencing an influx of travellers most of them being Mozambicans who are heading back home for the holidays.

Mozambique authorities have deliberated with its counterparts to resolve the situation.

Contralesa President Chief Mathupa Mokoena says both the department and the BMA must present a plan on how to deal with this situation in future.

Mokoena says, “Contralesa is annoyed by the manner in which the Department of Home Affairs and the Border Management Authority are handling the situation at the Lebombo Border Gate. Those many excuses and the many justifications they are busy giving are really irritating.”

He says, “It is clear that the BMA and the department were never prepared for this situation. Surprisingly, it is not for the first time they are experiencing this. It is now apparent that some of many of the people who have been queueing for that past three days will spend their Christmas days while queueing on the lines. We call upon the relevant portfolio committee to summon the department and the BMA to come and account for this embarrassment situation.”

MANUAL PROCESSING

The BMA has implemented a manual processing system at the Lebombo Border Post to fastrack the processing of thousands of Mozambican still trying to cross.

The Authority’s Commissioner Dr Mike Masiapato says they agreed to implement a manual processing system to speed up clearing the migrants.

Masiapato says this will only apply for Mozambican and South African nationals only.

He says, “We are going to continue using the system as it were and we are then also going to implement the manual process, part of the implementation of the manual process but also part of mitigating the risks, we are also going to among the people on the queue also identify people, for instance women and children that are actually on the queue, and all of those we will prioritise and make sure that they are pushed through.”