National, provincial and local government departments, together with state agencies in the various provinces, will work together to manage congestion at the country’s busiest land border posts over the festive season, the border-control operational coordinating committee said on Thursday.
All relevant bodies — including the national Home Affairs Department as well as the departments of intelligence, transport, public works, agriculture and land affairs, health, defence, the South African Police Service and the South African Revenue Service — will be coordinated by the committee.
The committee is an affiliate structure of the government’s justice, crime prevention and security cluster and was mandated in 2005 to coordinate the management of the South African border environment, said committee spokesperson Thumida Maistry.
”The challenges for border control and security increase over the festive season due to the rise in cross-border trade and migration of people to and from neighbouring states,” she said.
Officials from the various departments will work together, planning daily sessions at a national joint operations centre to monitor the trends in the movement of goods and people and, where necessary, employ contingency plans for the busiest border posts.
In addition, information services have been made available to travellers and traders, including a call centre that will provide real-time information to those travelling across the border. — Sapa
Those who require border information can view the website, contact the call centre on Tel: 0860 26 7337 or SMS the word ”border” followed by a space and the name of a border gate to Tel: 083 709 9444