Cape Times

Spat over who will control country’s borders

- Siyabonga Mkhwanazi

THE National Assembly (NA) has refused to mediate in the fight between the National Treasury and the SAPS against the Department of Home Affairs over control of the new agency to man the country’s borders.

The fight for control of the agency forced chairperso­n of the portfolio committee on home affairs Lemias Mashile yesterday to instruct the three department­s to sort the problem out by next month.

In the briefing to the committee, Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni told MPs the Border Management Authority would fall under his department.

He said this followed the decision of the cabinet in 2013 that Home Affairs must be the lead department in the agency.

But this did not sit well with the police.

Component head of border policing in the SAPS Major-General David Chilembe said the agency must fall under the police as they were a security entity.

The agency is expected to start operating in April 2017 after Parliament has passed the Border Management Authority Bill.

Deputy director-general for tax policy and financial sector tegulation at the National Treasury Ismail Momoniat said they were concerned that the new agency would strip the SA Revenue Service (Sars) of its powers.

He said the Bill was silent on the functions to be transferre­d from Sars, its assets and the budget for the agency.

But the stand-off forced Mashile to intervene and ordered the three department­s to sort out the problem.

He said the NA cannot be used to address matters affecting department­s.

“You need to have a meaningful discussion with the Department of Home Affairs.

“If you are committed, you should agree on certain provisions,” he said.

“There may be a need to balance some of these things, the security of the state and the maximum collection of tax revenue.”

Mashile said President Jacob Zuma announced in his State of the Nation address in 2009 that an agency must be formed to man the borders.

This agency will include department­s in the borders and provide a co-ordinated and integrated management function, he said.

Mashile said the bill has been the culminatio­n of the work done for the past seven years.

There must not be a dispute about the fact that South Africa has porous borders threatenin­g the security of the state, he said.

The agency will start operating once the bill has been approved by Parliament.

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MKUSELI APLENI

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