President Cyril Ramaphosa says he was impressed by the improvements made at the Beitbridge border post by President Mnangagwa in Zimbabwe and wants South Africa to also upgrade their side so that the Beitbridge border post in Musina, Limpopo, functions well.
Ramaphosa had an engagement with his Zimbabwean counterpart, Emmerson Mnangagwa, at the port of entry.
The engagement was aimed at finding solutions to the challenge of illegal cross-border activities, including the movement of undocumented foreign nationals.
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Ramaphosa says the trade between these neighbouring countries must improve.
“We are on inspection; border inspection to come and see how our two borders are functioning because there are so many people visiting from both countries who cross the border. We want to ensure that our two border entries function well and to enhance ease of movement of our people and ease movement of goods so that trades between the two countries can be improved.”
Speaking after touring the Zimbabwean side, he said;
“We’ve got to modernize our people movement, trade movement infrastructure, I am here with the Minister who is in charge of immigration to see how best we can copy what Zimbabwe has done with a view of matching them so that we have a seamless way of enabling our people, our goods, our vehicles, to move across the two borders, to two countries across our common heritage that is the Limpopo River.”
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President Ramaphosa in his address while launching the Border Management Authority said the main objective is to make movement of goods and people between the countries, flawless and curb corruption.
The Border Management Authority is expected to tackle the challenges of congestion, procedural delays, long transit times, lack of predictability and high logistics costs.
I commend the Border Management Authority for the speed with which it has already commenced its work.
Earlier today, I visited the Beit Bridge Border Post with my counterpart from Zimbabwe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and we agreed that the establishment of the Border Management Authority will be an important tool for the development of the region.
It will form part of integrating border management activities in the SADC region as we implement the African Continental Free Trade Area. We will be able to work towards eradicating various forms of red tape that are hindering trade, investment and the movement of persons.
The Border Management Authority will be redeveloping six ports of entries as one-stop-border-posts. This approach will improve efficiency at land border crossings by combining the stops required for processing exit and entry formalities.
