English and Afrikaans soundbites by Chris Hattingh MP.
The DA notes with grave concern the arrest of five SANDF members, together with two Zimbabwean nationals, after an unauthorised midnight raid at the Sediba sa Tlou (Artonvilla) base near Musina, during which shots were allegedly fired and boxes of illicit cigarettes were seized and partly hidden on the base.
The suspects face charges including corruption, possession of illicit cigarettes, unlawful discharge of a firearm, and defeating the ends of justice.
It is high time that the security of South Africa’s borders be correctly commissioned to the Border Management Authority, and not to the SANDF. The DA calls for all border safeguarding functions to be transferred to the BMA, and for the BMA to be adequately funded, to make a clean break with these established syndicates once and for all.
The SANDF has confirmed arrests in this case, and it says internal disciplinary processes will run concurrently with the criminal case. The DA demands the immediate suspension from border duties of all implicated members pending investigations—no firearms access, no operational roles until conclusion.
The national problem which this case highlights is that SANDF soldiers on our borders are poorly trained, poorly managed and with a systemic breakdown in command, there has been a systemic breakdown in discipline too.
Soldiers who turn the border into a cashpoint betray the uniform and the Republic.
The border lapse is not an isolated lapse. It follows other serious security failures at SANDF facilities, including an informal settlement on the premises of one base, and a cow kraal being allowed to enter the premises of another base.
The DA also calls report to the Portfolio Committee (within 14 days) from the Minister, CSANDF and Chief of Logistics detailing:
(a) the chain-of-command failures that enabled an “unauthorised operation”;
(b) the safeguarding lapses that allowed contraband to be concealed on a base; and
(c) the status of all parallel Military Police, SAPS and SARS actions.
The SANDF is compromising the integrity of our borders, and this must end. A dedicated border force, in a fully capacitated Border Management Authority, must be the solution.