One-stop borders low on government priority list

One stop border posts are not a priority in the bigger scheme of government spending at present. This was the word from top officials from the South African Revenue Service at the recent South African Association of Freight Forwarders Conference. “Government is just not spending money if it is not on poverty alleviation – and one stop border posts are not in that category,” said Gugu Africa. “These border posts would need a huge cash injection. Government is not in a sound financial position; we are in the midst of a global economic downturn and revenues are down. Strategic decisions have to be made in these turbulent times.” This did not mean that one stop borders were not going to be established, but rather that the idea was just being postponed, said Africa. “We don’t expect to see these border posts happen in the next three years – it is just not a priority right now. There is no cash injection for this. We wanted to increase staff by 3000 at Sars by April, and that number was reduced to 115,” she said. Africa said there was a definite commitment from the Minister of Home Affairs who had been looking at proposals for some time, but advisers were of the opinion that the country should be cautionary, and if one stop border posts were to be opened, to only run one for the time being. “We can’t operate a one stop border post with Zimbabwe and Mozambique. We would need to learn some lessons from the first before we take on a second,” said Africa. In this regard there were critical challenges at Beitbridge making the Komatipoort borderpost a more obvious choice for the country’s first one stop border post. “The bridge is a problem and we would need to work together with Zimbabwe to address the infrastructure problems. We have been entertaining the idea of using the old bridge for cars as a way of addressing the congestion while only trucks use the new bridge,” said Africa.