How public-private partnerships will transform South Africa’s border management

Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber appeared before the Select Committee on Security and Justice on Wednesday, emphasising the crucial role of public-private partnerships in the successful implementation of the One Stop Border Post plan. The Bill aims to establish a legal framework for creating shared border posts between South Africa and its neighbouring countries. It provides for the development of common control zones where officials from both countries can enforce their respective national laws in a coordinated and efficient manner.

In November last year, the National Assembly adopted the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs’ report on the One Stop Border Post Bill. The Bill was then sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. “I think the biggest financial implication is the question of how we would fund the reconstruction of the land borders, and that has been dealt with.

(It’s) through this triple-p (public-private partnership) that has been underway. “It’s actually taken far too long, colleagues, if we’re honest with each other. This has been a nine-year process.

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It was sort of reinvigorated again in the last two or three years,” Schreiber said. “So we must get it over the line now, and have those bidders appointed, and they have to start building. But that’s really where the financial implications would come from.

“It is not the State that has to carry that burden. It is through the triple-p model that this will be done,” he said.

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