The newest addition to the South African government’s security architecture – the Border Management Authority (BMA), now into its second year of operations – has joined the queue wanting more funding from National Treasury (NT).

Last week Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs (PCHA) meeting heard Commissioner Michael Masiapato’s BMA was under-funded as regards implementation of its cybersecurity roadmap and ability to undertake lifestyle audits, seen as “an area of risk” given the environment BMA staffers operate in.

A Parliamentary Communication Services statement has PCHA chair Mosa Chabane saying “digital transformation [of the BMA] has been identified as a critical pillar of the strategic plan and having a dedicated leader will ensure close focus, especially in the context of complexities and cybersecurity risks within the environment”. In this regard the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) seconded one of its ICT (information and communications technology) officials to Masiapato’s Pretoria headquartered agency.

Under- and lack of government funding is seemingly a perennial problem for the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) and SA Police Service (SAPS) as the organisations battle to keep pace with demands and directives from Cabinet in the wake of decisions and recommendations from its Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster.

Another matter, not directly affecting the BMA, but impacting its effectiveness in some way is fraudulent documentation. Here the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) counter-corruption unit is making an impact according to the statement.

“The major headway the unit made in breaking [a] racket that fraudulently sells the department’s documents must be protected and promoted. The unit must be properly resourced, both in human capacity and technological tools of trade,” the statement has Chabane saying, adding the unit is contributing to safeguarding the “credibility of the country’s documentation”.