Lebombo Border Post is ready for the festive season

KOMATIPOORT – To ensure that the Lebombo Border Post is geared for the large volumes of people expected over the festive season, public service and administration minister, Ayanda Dlodlo paid it a visit on Monday morning.

The border post is considered one of the busiest in the country over Christmas and New Year and the minister wanted to see whether the facilities are equipped to deal with the number of people expected to pass through it. She also aimed to talk to the province and municipality on areas where service delivery could be improved and where they could collaborate.

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The minister stated that they had picked up a few issues, such as the water supply and said that “the province would facilitate some progress with regards to some of these problems”.

The minister was accompanied by MEC for safety and security Pat Ngomane; Gen Isaac Phahla, the SAPS deputy provincial commissioner; the speaker of the Nkomazi Local Municipality, Sphiwe Mashele and other officials.

They made a quick stop at a roadblock near the border, before participating in the routine search at the border post. The MEC and minister also interacted with people passing through the border, leaving several surprised and delighted to meet them.

Dlodlo thanked police officers at the border for their service and urged them to treat everyone passing through with respect. She urged them to be especially respectful of women and children, who are vulnerable during this time.

They were then taken on a tour of the home affairs offices, passing through to the Mozambican side and back, with an official explaining all the procedures and duties of staff.

The minister declared the border ready for the festive season, but said that there was still “a bit of work to be done in terms of staffing of home affairs”. She continued by saying that she was sure that they are in the process of ensuring readiness during the busy period ahead.

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Some of these measures include deploying staff from national and provincial departments, such as traffic and home affairs, to work at the border post during the last two weeks of December and first week of January.

Ngomane explained that his department had launched their strategy for the festive season in cooperation with home affairs, SAPS and SANDF.

Officers, soldiers and officials will be stationed at the border post from the week of December 14. There will also be static roadblocks and regular patrols on busy routes such as the N4 and R40. There will also be a special focus on the border post on December 24.

He urged all road users to help make the roads safer, as it is not only government’s responsibility to do so.

The group then headed to an imbizo at KaMaqhekeza Stadium, where community representatives could directly talk to officials about their issues.

Some of the issues community members mentioned included corruption in government and police, youth development, lack of scholar transport and identification for children that need to go to school and the slow development of communities.

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Shongwe replied and said that both he and the minister would engage with the various departments on these issues. He admitted that there is corruption in the police, but stated that there are only a few rotten apples in the bunch.

Dlodlo followed and said that she specifically chose the community to engage with, because she believes it needs national intervention.

She urged communities to report corruption in regards to projects that are never implemented or left unfinished but that contractors are being paid for. “The police and the Auditor General need to investigate this. Although government does monitor projects to some extent, communities need to be our eyes and ears,” she said.

She also promised to interact with home affairs before the end of the year to see how they could help children of Mozambican parents get IDs. “The gentleman who brought it up is correct. We want this kids to get an education. Otherwise we are breeding criminals, drug addicts, victims of human trafficking and sexual abuse. This needs to be addressed before the new school year starts.”

In conclusion, she told the community that she does not make promises she can not keep and will give them feedback on the progress.