Mobile units to beef up Sars’ border patrol

First 100 officers currently in training
ALAN PEAT
SA IS to set up a highly mobile border patrol unit to attack smuggling and other illicit trade along the country’s 8 900-kilometres of unprotected borders. The first batch of 100 officers is currently in training at SA Revenue Service (Sars). The group will soon be able to add its muscle to the 250 officers already appointed to border patrol duties. The problem with the current 250-man team, according to Sars spokesman Adrian Lackay, is that they operate under a dual function – anti-smuggling border patrols, but also monitoring of the static border posts. The new system will see fast moving patrol units – with teams of three or four officers manning each of the 60 four-wheel-drive (4x4) vehicles being acquired by Sars. These teams will supplement the present SA Police Service and SA Defence Force presence patrolling the borders between SA and Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland. The scheme, according to Lackay, is to train at least 100 officers each year – the largest size of group which can be accommodated given Sars’ current training resources. Although initially an unarmed force, Sars will also conduct weapons training for the teams until they are able to carry firearms – a similar scheme, said Sars, to a programme in China where 50 000 customs officials were trained to para-military standards for border patrol. The fixed border posts will be manned by about 1 200 Sars personnel, with the mobile teams taking over the border patrol functions – and designed to curb the incidence of smuggling along some of the rather remote stretches which are ideal for illicit border crossing.