Home Affairs ready for festive season

South Africa

The department of home affairs has plans to deploy about 425 additional staff members and will extend operational hours at the busiest ports of entry during the festive season to deal with the increased number of travellers in and out of the country.

Deputy minister Fatima Chohan told journalists that the department was ready to handle increased traffic, in particular at the air and land ports. Chohan said the festive season which officially starts on December 5 until January 9 2019  experiences heightened movement across the ports of entry and the demand for home affairs services, particularly passport applications.

Chohan addressed journalists in place of newly appointed home affairs minister Siyabonga Cwele, who was participating in a delayed national assembly debate on the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill.

The festive period, Easter and school holidays are the peak periods at national borders.

Chohan said in the 2017-18 festive season, a total of 8,468,262 movements were captured, comprising arrivals and departures of SA citizens and foreigners.

Of these, 2,304,449 were citizens’ movements and 6,163,813 were foreigners’ movements.

The highest arrivals from the SA Development Community (SADC) region were from Lesotho at 758,519, followed by Zimbabwe (712,688), Mozambique (398,684), Swaziland (306,682) and Botswana (256,793).

In the same period, OR Tambo International Airport was the leading port for all movements, with 1,569,100 recorded there. It was followed by Beitbridge at 1,215,845 and Lebombo at 936,415.

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