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.
“The team is also setting up overflow areas for processing of travellers in Maseru Bridge, Lebombo and Beitbridge, in order to cater for the volumes expected,” she said.
She said it was necessary that ports of entry were prepared to handle traveller movement and to curb illegal movement and transgressions.
Security and risks during peak periods include fraudulent documents, undocumented travellers and poor access control due to congested roads. Travellers leaving and entering SA have to ensure that all their travel documents were in order to avoid unnecessary delays at ports.
These include passports, visas, health certificates, permits for specified goods, plants and animals, vehicle insurance and bank-authorised cross-border documents for vehicles.
-Sowetan Live