More SA troops to be sent to the border

The South African National Defence Force is to deploy more soldiers to South Africa's border areas to reduce the number of illegal immigrants entering that country.

Speaking in a radio interview yesterday, the chief of the defence force, Lt-Gen Vusi Masondo, said it had already deployed 13 companies along the border.

"In the next few weeks we will be increasing the number of companies to 22 to tighten border crossings ..... We could have deployed much earlier, but the challenge has been funding and ... we have been stretched as some of our personnel have been deployed in other countries," he said.