The Department of Home Affairs and the Border Management Agency (BMA) have announced the introduction of drones to monitor the country’s borders during the upcoming Easter long weekend where cross-border movement is expected to intensify.
The department, and its agency tasked with managing South Africa’s ports of entries, also announced the introduction of body cameras for selected staff interacting with travellers.
This was announced by Dr Leon Schreiber, the Minister for Home Affairs in Pretoria today, 10 April 2025.
Schreiber said these measures are meant to turn the tide against illegal immigration and eliminate corruption in ports of entry. He stressed that with drones, the country’s borders would be more secured and illegal immigrants would be spotted and caught anywhere and anytime of the day.
He added that the introduction of drones is a step towards digital transformation in the department in managing border security.
“We have really said right from the start that using technology is the only way that we are going to make up for shortfalls, whether those shortfalls be financial, whether those shortfalls be in terms of human resources and today we are going to demonstrate to you what we mean by that.
“And we are going to, I believe, send a very clear message about the capabilities of the border management authority as a law enforcement entity and about the huge progress we are making in securing the border environment,” Schreiber said.
Regarding the body cameras, he said for now they would be 40 and would be used in selected entry points.
“There are 40 of these body cameras that have been procured now and they too are going to be an invaluable resource. I think in the demonstration later you will be able to see that for the very first time the BMA can now see what is happening in the personal exchange at the port environment.
“In other words, if there is an official who needs to stamp a passport, if there is someone who is coming through the port environment and of course if someone is trying to solicit a bribe or engage in other kinds of corrupt activity, the BMA operational centre will be able to see exactly what is going on in that environment.
“We have seen the impact of these devices in other countries, body cameras have been used very successfully to reduce corruption and increase efficiency as well in many jurisdictions around the world and the BMA is now moving on to the cutting edge of using these technologies to make sure that we are actually able to optimise the operations in the port environment but also off course to combat corruption.”
