SA army steps up border control
…further deployments along the Lesotho border
BY LEON ENGELBRECHT
JOHANNESBURG – The South African National Defence Force would, by early 2015, have 15 companies of about 180 soldiers each deployed along the nation’s land border with Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique and Lesotho.
The military is also set to deploy a squadron of field engineers to maintain and improve border facilities.
Currently four companies are deployed along sections of the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders. The four companies are operating from Pontdrift and Musina in Limpopo, Macadamia in Mpumalanga and Ndumo in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Next April, two more companies will join this force and deploy to Skukuza and Piet Retief, both in Mpumalanga.
In April 2012, three more companies will step up state control of a notoriously porous eastern border by deploying to Phalaborwa, Zonstraal and Pongola. Two tactical headquarters will also deploy with them: one along the Zimbabwe border and another along the Mpumalanga line.
In the autumn of 2013, three more companies will be deployed, one to Madimbo in Limpopo, and two to Lesotho: one at Fouriesburg in the Free State and the other at Barkley East.
Full deployment under the current Operation Corona scheme will be achieved in 2015 with further deployments along the Lesotho border at Himevile, Cedarville and Maluti.
Two tactical headquarters will also deploy, one in KZN and the other in the Free State, in the place of the Group headquarters that were decommissioned when the commando system was scrapped after a decision by President Thabo Mbeki in 2003.
Colonel Lucas Delport, Senior Staff Officer Planning on the Joint-5 (Long Term Planning) staff of the Joint Operations Division told a media briefing on Tuesday, August 17 a “Berlin Wall” approach to border control will not work for a country with a 4471km land border.
He notes about half – 2,058km – is seen as a priority, hence the focus along the Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique and Lesotho borders over the next five years.
The Namibian and Botswana borders are seen as lesser priorities.
Because of the relatively low force levels available for the task – some 600 soldiers at present and some 2,700 by April 2015, land border security will employ a mobile concept, albeit in depth.
The deployment is in terms of Section 18(1)(d) of the Defence Act 42 of 2002 that authorises the President or the Minister of Defence to employ the SANDF for service inside the Republic or in international waters, in order to effect national border control.
Section 20(1) of the same law adds military personnel, when so employed “has the same powers and duties (to arrest, detain, seize and search) as those conferred or imposed upon a member of the South African Police Service (SAPS)”.
Delport says the mission area and operational areas are being proclaimed and published in the Government Gazette as they are established.
With the troops gaining police powers, incident locations become crime scenes and would require close cooperation with the police as well as appropriate training for the soldiers and the provision of the correct equipment, especially non-lethal capabilities.
Delport added the return of the SANDF to the border was not an indictment on any other government department or an indication of failure. – DEFENCEWEB
Come on guys, thought Lesotho is going to be incorporated into Suid Afrika in 2012??