CRIME BORDER WALL FOR SA, SD AND MOZ

MBABANE – In an effort to stamp out cross-border crime, the South African KwaZulu-Natal Province has committed to building a border wall.

According to News24, the region has already set aside a budget for the construction of the large concrete barriers — up to two metres high each, which will be erected along parts of the Mozambique and Swaziland borders near Jozini and KZN.

“We are tired of the cross-border crime,” said KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Belinda Scott at an event in Durban on Friday.
She said people, including tourists, were getting killed and attacked from vehicle hijackings and stock thefts.
In addition, wildlife was being poached.

She said protecting citizens along the border was not a function of the provincial government, but the province intended to ‘take the lead’ in a E120 million project to erect New Jersey Barriers along certain areas of the border.

New Jersey Barriers are the low, concrete, short wall structures often used along highways to direct traffic and protect driving lanes.
Scott said the intention was not to stop people from crossing the border, but the barriers will aim to stop illegal vehicular travel between the countries.

She said an 80-kilometre stretch of the border had been identified where most of the illegal crossings were made, of which a 25-kilometre stretch was the most commonly used by the criminals. She said they hoped to recoup the money for the project from the Department of Home Affairs, which would also have to maintain the barriers, while the plan was for the defence force to patrol it.

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