South Africa’s porous borders have long been characterised by inefficiency, corruption, and transnational crime. Since its establishment in 2023, the Border Management Authority (BMA) has been tasked with overseeing border security across the country’s ports of entry and extensive borderlands. Now, as both economic and security pressures intensify, BMA Commissioner Dr Mike Masiapato says a comprehensive, home-grown digital transformation is essential to protect South Africa’s sovereignty, restore efficiency at its borders, and rebuild trust with international partners.

Speaking at the CSIR@80 | G-STIC Pretoria Conference session titled “Building National Resilience Through Home-grown Technological Innovations for Safety and Security,” Masiapato delivered a clear assessment of South Africa’s border challenges and the urgent need to refocus on and re-establish security as a cornerstone of the country’s national development agenda.

“No jurisdiction can effectively develop unless that particular jurisdiction can understand the imperatives of safety and security,” he told attendees.

Masiapato explained that during and after the 1994 democratic transition, the country drifted away from traditional security concerns towards “issues of social security. While that was critical, unfortunately we did too much, to the extent that the reality now caught up with us. That is why we are now trying to reverse or go back to the fundamentals around the issues of safety and security.”

The Strategic Importance of the BMA

The BMA, as one of South Africa’s three primary national (armed) law enforcement authorities (the others being the South African Police Service and the South African National Defence Force) is responsible for managing and controlling the “legitimate movement of people and goods across all South African ports of entry,” Masiapato explained.

It operates across some 71 ports of entry, including 52 land ports with six neighbouring countries, ten international airports, eight seaports, and one “dry port” at City Deep, Johannesburg. In addition, the BMA operates within a 10 km area along South Africa’s international borders, including the country’s approximately 3 900 km long coastline (a 10 km inland control strip and a 12-nautical-mile maritime zone).

According to Masiapato, the BMA’s mission extends far beyond policing borders and controlling migration. Effective border management, he argued, is fundamental to both national security and economic growth. However, “systemic vulnerabilities in our border processes have, for too long, undermined our national integrity,” he said. Manual, opaque procedures have created “fertile ground for corruption, eroded public trust, and compromised our security.”

Digital Transformation as a Strategic Imperative

To address these weaknesses, the BMA is implementing a sweeping digital transformation strategy, which Masiapato described as a “strategic imperative” and a “radical, comprehensive automation of all border processes.”

The initiative is focused on three main objectives:

“Removing the paper: eliminating the physical pretext for manipulation and fraud.”
“Digitised processes: create an immutable, transparent digital audit trail for every transaction.”
“Automated decisions: enforce consistency, speed, and impartiality in line with the law.”
According to Masiapato, the ideal outcome is a border environment that is secure, efficient, and trusted.

One example is the BMA’s work on Authorised Economic Operators (AEO), a system that will register trusted freight operators and allow them to pass through ‘green lanes’ using number-plate recognition and digital authorisation. Masiapato explained that this would not only aid in the fight against corruption but also greatly improve the flow of goods and people across South Africa’s borders.

“Trucks waiting two weeks to cross Beitbridge is not sustainable for trade, regional integration, or the implementation African Continental Free Trade Area,” he emphasised.

Technology and Home-grown Solutions

Masiapato stressed that digitalisation must go hand in hand with investment in home-grown technology. “The minister is a key driving force behind the BMA’s digitalisation transformation. In this a need was identified to work with home grown tech companies and research bodies, such as the CSIR,” he said.

He also warned that an over or total dependence on technology from foreign countries, even those considered “friends or strategic partners”, creates serious strategic vulnerabilities. “Even in that instance, if you happen to go to war and you completely depend on technology from allies, they can simply just shut you down, making you vulnerable to attack.”

To this end, the BMA is introducing several initiatives to stimulate and support domestic innovation and technological development. These include: preferential procurement policies; public-private innovation partnerships; regulatory sandboxes or safe test environments (for local innovators to trial technologies in live settings); and skills transfer mandates requiring foreign vendor contracts to include the mandatory upskilling of local teams.

New Technologies for Safer, Better Borders

Additionally, the Commissioner highlighted a number of technologies already being deployed, including long-range drones for border patrols, body cameras for on-site personnel, and advanced passenger processing systems that screen travellers before they board flights bound for South Africa.

“E-gates are coming, we will be installing some now for the G-20,” he said. Adding, “it is something critical for the better facilitating of people, so that when they get to the port they can be processed through facial recognition and biometric screening before they travel.”

Masiapato explained that this would not only ease the travel experience of visitors to the country, but also better enable South Africa to conduct ‘pre-analysis’ on travellers before entry into the country.

“Before they land you already know who they are, you already know that they are harmless and therefore they just walk into the country.”

Reclaiming integrity through innovation

For Masiapato, digitalisation and home-grown innovation are not only about efficiency, they are about restoring integrity and public trust in the border management system.

“Our mission is to systematically eliminate the space for corruption,” he said. “The current system encourages it. If you wait two weeks at a port and someone says, ‘Pay R500 and you’ll be through in 30 minutes,’ of course you’ll pay. We are changing that.”