Cape Town harbour ‘nerve centre’ opens

The government would bring a new law to give statutory effect to the Border Management Agency, a body being set up to co-ordinate government departments’ efforts to control South Africa’s points of entry, Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor said on Friday.

She was opening the new port of entry control centre at Cape Town harbour.

Ms Pandor said the centre was the first of its kind and could serve as a precedent for other ports of entry in South Africa’s maritime, air and land borders. It drew from international experience.

"It will operate as a model ‘Government House’ that brings together government departments and state agencies including immigration, customs, health, agriculture, security and intelligence under one roof, to promote a seamless, modernised, efficient and effective service."

Cape Town harbour and its commercial and official government activities have a bearing on the development of the province and the city. Statistics for 2012-13 show that 870,851 containers and 729,736 tons of dry bulk moved through the Cape Town port, and that 62,570 people entered or left from the Cape Town harbour.

"With the new maritime port of entry control centre we can now look forward to better vessel control, improved and shared IT infrastructure, as well as enhanced human resource capacity," Ms Pandor said.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the government took a collective approach to intellectual property and knowledge developed by departments modernising operations through process engineering and technology enablement. An example was the Department of Home Affairs and South African Revenue Service’s joint development of the movement control system deployed at ports of entry in 2010. To date it had processed more than 140-million passenger movements.

Another example was the live capture solution developed by the Department of Home Affairs and SARS, and launched last year.

Mr Gordhan said it was "customer experience" that mattered most when it came to new systems and procedures.

"Those who have bona fide business and other interests in entering or bringing goods into South Africa, or leaving or exporting goods from South Africa, should receive efficient and courteous service.

"Those whose motives will harm our economy or people will be dealt by the full might of the law," he said.