Border Management Authority hails new drones as ‘game-changer’ at SA ports of entry

A Zimbabwaen immigrant rushes to go through a border fence while illegally crossing into South Africa May 26, 2008 near Musina, South Africa. Facing economic strife and political oppression at home, Zimbabwaens continue to flood accross the border, despite recent violent attacks against foreign immigrants in South Africa. A human rights group recently reported that up to 49,000 Zimbabwaens are illegally crossing into South Africa each month, adding to the 3-5 million Zimbabwaen refugees already residing in South Africa. (Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)

By Suné Payne

28 Apr 2025

Over the Easter period about 6,000 people were apprehended or intercepted trying to come into South Africa or exit via ports of entry. This is almost double the previous year’s 3,841. The difference this year? The implementation of drones.

Just before Easter, the Border Management Authority (BMA) announced the implementation of drones to help combat illegal border crossing. This has paid off, with an increase of 61% of people intercepted or apprehended at ports of entry.

“It’s a game-changer,” BMA commissioner Michael Masiapato told the media on Monday, 28 April as the authority unpacked Easter period statistics at the country’s ports of entry.

Earlier in April, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber and the BMA announced the implementation of drones in a bid to curb the illegal border crossing into the country.

Read more: Easter security boost: South Africa deploys drones and body cameras to fortify border management

At Monday’s briefing Masiapato said the use of drones this year had a “serious impact”.

“Just in a period of 10 days we have been able to intercept and apprehend a total of 6,253 persons who were attempting to either enter or exit South Africa illegally,” he said.

borders drones The Border Management Authority uses drones, body cameras and other technology to protect the nation’s borders. (Photo: Lerato Mutsila)

About 4,795 of those people were undocumented, 1,055 people were undesirable and 403 were found to be inadmissible for various reasons, including fraudulent visas and failure to provide yellow fever certificates.

In addition to the 6,253, “about 112 individuals were arrested at the ports of entry and/or border law enforcement area for various reasons and were handed over to members of the SAPS for further processing”.

Masiapato said the “majority of these individuals served as facilitators of illegal activities around the ports of entry and were therefore charged for aiding and abetting according to section 49(2) of the Immigration Act”.

The interceptions of 61% could be “attributed to the deployment of hi-tech surveillance drones and body-worn cameras”.

Asked by journalists about the use of drones, Masiapato said this had been a “game-changer”.

When drones were deployed, “what effectively happens is we are then able to communicate with the border guards on the ground” through devices and then officials could detect who was trying to enter the country illegally and where, and intercept them.

Masiapato added that drones have made it easier to carry out targeted interceptions, helping officials to identify facilitators who bring people into the country.

(Photo: @PresidencyZA / formerly Twitter)

“When you have intercepted 10 people, you ask them who is the facilitator. They will never tell you who the facilitator is and guess what, we deport all of them,” he said.

Even after deportations, facilitators had gone back to facilitating illegal migration within hours.

Masiapato said: “We could not be talking the way we are talking today last year in April because we did not have the drones.

“So, from where we are sitting now, we are saying the issue of the drones is a game-changer, but more importantly, because they enable us to be able to arrest the facilitators… the more we take facilitators out of the value chain, the more we start having some impact because the vicious cycle has been continuing forever.”

border management migration A Zimbabwean rushes to go through a border fence while illegally crossing into South Africa near Musina on 26 May 2008. (Photo: John Moore / Getty Images)

In December 2024, Daily Maverick took a deep dive into the South Africa-Zimbabwe smuggling network via Musina, near the border, which has been a long-standing problem because the border is porous.

Read more: Inside the Musina-Zimbabwe smuggling network

Masiapato also said there were about 1,057,063 movements across the 71 ports of entry in South Africa, an increase of 8% over the previous Easter period. In 2024’s Easter period the country registered about 974,729 at the ports of entry.

“This upward trend highlights the growing demand for cross-border travel in the post-Covid period.” DM

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