Beitbridge: DHA accused of ignoring crisis through border closure

Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Monday 11 January 2021 that all of South Africa’s 20 land posts will be closed to curb the spread of COVID-19, the Democratic Alliance (DA) have accused the ruling party of papering over the cracks and failing to address the glaring issues presenting themselves at the highly congested and trouble-ridden Beitbridge border post. 

The DA have blamed the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for failing to manage the increasingly precarious situation at Beitbridge, where delays in access permits have led to overwhelming congestion, with five people understood to have died while waiting in queues.

Beitbridge saga ‘smacks of sheer incompetence’  

Angel Khanyile, the DA’s  Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, said that the decision by government to close borders is simply demonstrative of the DHA’s “sheer inability” to address the recent chaos at the Beitbridge Border Post, and that the move has little to do with curbing the spread of COVID-19.

“While it was evident that the congestion at Beitbridge was bordering on a major COVID-19 and humanitarian crisis, the reality is that it was a crisis brought on by the DHA’s abysmal record in border management and lack of foresight to adequately capacitate the border control facility to process travellers, enforce Covid protocols and screening as well as verifying Covid tests,” she said. 

She said that the high volume of travel at South Africa’s land border posts are a common occurrence over the festive period, and that “surely the department should have known that the congestion was a possibility in light of Covid protocols and the curfew”. 

“The chaos that ensued at Beitbridge was just a symptom of the incompetence, mismanagement and lack of accountability that has become synonymous with Home Affairs over the years,” she said. 

Significantly fewer commuters pass through border in 2020 

When the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs’ conducted an oversight inspection at the Beitbridge Border Post in December 2020, they found that significantly less people had passed through compared to the previous year, with 368 895 people travelling through its gates in December 2019 and 103 224 travellers doing so last month. 

“It was immediately evident that the DHA never had a plan in place to deal with travellers entering and exiting the country, as no plan could be produced and presented to members of Parliament on preventative measures,” said Khanyile.