It must be over a decade since the South African government entertained the notion of a border management agency (BMA). Initial attempts were made along the lines of a collaborative departmental approach to securing and administering the plethora of controls. None of the attempts has had any success in meshing together a workable solution. Perhaps the best essay on the subject remains Jonny Steinberg’s “An overview of South African border control: 1994-2004“.  

A recent article by Leon Engelbrecht, editor of DefenceWeb, suggests that the ‘thought process’ behind the establishment of a BMA has not moved beyond the pre-democracy stance of a military emphasis at the countries border posts and borderlines. Unlike other parts of the world where ‘border security’ retains a customs and immigration character – if only just – details of this country’s endeavours appear to favour military and police type controls which bodes little hope for intra SACU/SADC trade developments. Unless a strong leader, having an acute understanding of both trade and security, heads up such BMA, there is little hope that the initaitve will ever materialise. Lets just wait and see.