In a discussion regarding the operational challenges faced by the Border Management Authority (BMA), officials have highlighted a crucial underlying issue: capacity limitations. 

This came to light when BMA Commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato led a high-level delegation from the BMA’s Executive Committee (EXCO) on a monitoring visit to the Durban Harbour on Wednesday. 

“We had to come here as leadership because we do believe that, based on the principle that for us to make interventions, we need to gather empirical data, and ultimately make sure that any intervention that we make is actually informed by the things that we have seen and by the things that we have observed,” Masiapato explained. 

“We do know at the end that it is very much easy for anyone to just take any decision, but without any full appreciation of what the colleagues are going through on the ground, it becomes very much ineffective in terms of any interventions that get taken at the leadership level.” 

Masiapato said a fundamental issue is the nature of the challenges colleagues face on the ground. Most of these challenges stem purely from capacity realities.

“Capacity, in this instance, we talk about human resource capacity, but also other critical capacities, like tools of trade, which actually include things like your scanners and all of those kinds of things.

“We are fairly taking all of these issues, obviously, into what we call the border technical committee of directors-general, which is basically chaired by the commissioner of the BMA, and get this particular issues deliberated on and be able to make sure that the interventions are brought on the table to get the issues effectively addressed and the colleagues on the ground are ultimately assisted.

“Outside the border technical committee, we should then be able to escalate some of the issues into the inter-ministerial consultative committee of border management, so that we can make sure that these particular things that we have actually observed at this level are effectively addressed.” 

Masiapato said they want to ensure that consignments are processed out of the port seamlessly, and be able to provide effective service delivery to those who are doing importation and exportation of consignments.

“Most critically, part of the responsibility of the Border Management Authority is to ensure the effective realisation and the protection of the country’s national security imperatives, but at the same time the protection of the country’s national interest,” he said.

“It is on that basis that we have to then make sure that we put more stringent measures in place to be able to pick up illicit goods that some of them had actually entered the jurisdiction through this particular port, and they have actually been continuing to compromise the growth of our formal economy based on the movement of illicit goods into the Republic. 

“It is on that basis that we are looking at ensuring that we bring more capacity into this port, particularly in terms of the scaling capacity, so that we can detect most of those illicit goods that are being attempted to be brought into the country. That is actually not only the issue; we also have challenges regarding issues of the movement of narcotics, and in this particular instance, we do know this port is also one of those that is actually utilised for that particular reality, and on that basis, we should be able to take these matters forward.” 

Masiapato also emphasised the issue of the sharing of resources. Various structures that are operating in this particular value chain do have some of the resources, and in many instances, those resources are not optimally utilised.

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za

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