The Ministers of Home Affairs in South Africa, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, and the Kingdom of Eswatini, Her Royal Highness Princess Lindiwe, met to take forward discussion in areas of mutual interest which include safe and regular migration, trade and the 24 hour operation as well as One Stop Border Post at the Oshoek/Ngwenya Border Post on Monday, 12 August 2019.

The meeting was a follow up to the meeting held on 12 April 2019 wherein the Ministers agreed to meet regularly. The two Ministers were joined by the honourable Ministers of Labour and Social Security Mr Makhosi Vilakati and Tourism and Environmental Affairs Mr Moses Vilakati from the Kingdom of Eswatini.

Also in attendance were the SA High Commissioner to Swaziland, Members of Eswatini Parliament, Councillors of the Chief Albert Luthuli Local Municipality, senior managers of both governments from the departments of Home Affairs, Police and the Revenue Service.

The SA Department of Home Affairs is scheduled to conclude consultations with the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development on the extension of operating hours by an hour which will see the Oshoek/Ngwenya operating from 06:00 instead of the current 07:00 starting time. The Eswatini Ministry of Home Affairs indicated that it was ready to extend the operating hours by an hour. The Port of Entry will continue to close at 00:00 while preparations for it to operate for 24 hours was agreed in principle pending finalisation of technical issues. Princess Lindiwe said the Ngwenya/Oshoek 24 hour operation is a top priority for His Majesty King Mswati III, the Prime Minister, and her colleagues at cabinet, parliament, business community and Emaswati.

The Oshoek/Ngwenya is the busiest Port of Entry between the two countries with more than two million traveller movements in each of the past five years and is the busiest land port, bigger than Bay Bridge for the SA Revenue Service accounting to R1.7 billion in revenue collection annually. The consistent traveller movements can be attributed to the cultural and tourism programmes introduced by the Kingdom of Eswatini during this period.

Minister Motsoaledi said increasing the operating time of the Port of Entry by an hour will boost trade in both countries and could have a positive impact on job creation because trucks would be cleared earlier than the current time. Supporting her counterpart Minister, Princess Lindiwe said this will allow Eswatini the leeway to also proportionally increase resources as they become increasing required.

Minister Motsoaledi also briefed his counterparts about progress in finalising the Border Management Authority (BMA) which will help improve the management of the border environment on the South African side and help to deal with porous borders by streamlining the agencies and laws applicable at the borders. Oshoek/Ngwenya is one of four ports of entry which have been identified for the pilot phase of the implementation of the BMA once legislation has been finalised. This Port of Entry has also been identified for infrastructure upgrade as part of the One-Stop Border Posts programme.

Minister Motsoaledi extended an invitation to Her Royal Highness Princess Lindiwe to visit the Government Printing Works (GPW) to see the capacity of the facility which prints high security documents. GPW last month signed a five-year agreement to print high security certificates for the Eswatini Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

Both Ministers urged citizens of both countries to apply timeously for applicable permits required to visit each country either for tourism, trade or education to ensure that people coming into the countries are properly documented, and those already working illegal in the Republic of South Africa must make arrangements to acquire legal papers.

The Ministers also agreed to formalise all informal crossings to benefits both countries. Motsoaled made an example of one informal crossing that was formalise with Botswana.

The Ministers encouraged the border and immigration officials to continue with the monthly bilateral meetings and suggest that the discussions held be reported to the higher level quarterly meetings. Furthermore, they toured the port to monitor operations and also assess infrastructure ahead of the pilot phase of the Border Management Authority and the One-Stop Border Post.

For media queries contact:

Mlandvo A. Dlamini
Ministerial Communications Officer
Ministry of Home Affairs
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
Cell: +268 7606 3938

Siya Qoza, 082 898 1657 Spokesperson for the SA Minister of Home Affairs

David Hlabane, 071 342 4284, media manager for the SA Department of Home Affairs

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