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BMA Commissioner, Doctor Michael Masiapato
The Border Management Authority (BMA) says it has put arrangements in place to help it deal with the busy festive period.
It also says that partnerships with various stakeholders and the use of surveillance technology have proved fruitful in curbing criminal activities at the country’s points of entry.
BMA Commissioner, Doctor Michael Masiapato, has warned that anyone found committing a crime at the points of entry will be harshly dealt with.
The BMA says that during the last two festive seasons, foreign travellers dominated cross-border movement in South Africa.
At least 70 percent foreign and 30 percent South African of the 4.5 million travellers were processed in the 2024-2025 festive season.
Masiapato says they also arrested more than eight thousand people, mostly from Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, attempting to enter the country illegally in the second quarter of this year.
He adds: “Of that particular number, 4 092 of them were found to be undocumented, 2 061 were failures inadmissible, and 1 982 were undesirables. And of course, this is a reflection of the consistent, longstanding trends within the sub-region. And of course, trend-wise, there hasn’t been anything unusual.”
VIDEO | BMA media briefing on festive season operational plan:
