Only the DA has a plan to secure our borders

Yesterday, the ANC held its manifesto launch ahead of the general elections this year. Unsurprisingly, President Cyril Ramaphosa presented more of the same empty promises and offered no solutions to address South Africa's porous borders and illegal immigration.

Stating only that "We will work with other countries to ensure that there are incentives created for immigrants to stay in the borders of their own country" and that "we should ensure that those who come to South Africa do so legally and that the country knows what they do while they are in the country", the ANC clearly does not understand the real causes behind our unsecured borders.

I have spent the past six months visiting border posts across the country, engaging with officials and seeing for myself some of the challenges they face daily. During these inspections, the DA uncovered a number of issues including:

Illegal cross border trading;

Alleged social grant fraud;

Poor military patrolling and

Hijacking syndicates.

We need to secure our orders in order to address these issues as well as the prevalence of human trafficking, the illicit flow of drugs into our country and crime syndicates operating across our borders.

The ANC's manifesto is also noticeably silent on the state of the Department of Home Affairs(DHA)and the lack of support provided to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).

With over 700 officials in its Inspectorate, the DHA has no systems to accurately determine the number of undocumented immigrants in the country. When I spoke to SANDF officials off the record, they complained about being under-resourced and it emerged that there may be law enforcement individuals who are working with the syndicates, making it difficult to police these crimes.

Judging by its manifesto, the ANC has confirmed it has neither the ideas or will to address these challenges.

The DA is the only party that is capable of fixing our porous borders. The DA will secure our borders and stop illegal immigration by:

Arresting, detaining and deporting those who repeatedly enter our country illegally

Ensuring undocumented immigrants are regularised or assisted in leaving the country if they do not meet the criteria for remaining in the country.

Strengthening our border posts. Through proper control and order, we can create corruption-free and effective border security and control.

Eradicating the corruption and inefficiency endemic to Home Affairs.

Together with the push to secure our borders and regularise migrants, we are equally committed to:

Assist, support and care for legitimate refugees and asylum seekers.

Attract foreign nationals with scarce skills to South Africa to help us grow our economy and create jobs.

The DA's plan takes a holistic approach in addressing border security and immigration.

We recognise the humanitarian reasons for allowing asylum seekers into South Africa. We also understand that migration is important for developmental reasons if we want to attract the skills we need.

The ANC is incapable of ensuring law and order in the country. A change in leadership is needed and only the DA has a plan to control immigration and secure our borders.

The DA's plan will protect everybody. We will ensure we have well resourced border posts, that we root out the corruption at the DHA and that we are able to attract the talent and skills South Africa needs.

Statement issued by Jacques Julius MP, DA Spokesperson on Immigration, 13 January 2019