News / National
South Africa borders ready for festive season
04 Dec 2018 at 05:46hrs | Views
South Africa Home Affairs Minister Siyabonga Cwele has announced that ports of entry are ready for the festive season.
"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." Cwele said. "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, the highest arrivals in South Africa were 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).
The minister also revealed that they will be investing in Information Technology so as to ease the movement of travellers across the borders.
"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.
"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."
"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." Cwele said. "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, the highest arrivals in South Africa were 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).
The minister also revealed that they will be investing in Information Technology so as to ease the movement of travellers across the borders.
"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.
"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."
Source - Byo24News
