BMA captures 8,000 people for border infractions and seizes thousands of illicit products.
South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) has intercepted and destroyed 5,000 units of illicit birth control pills, 117 medical test kits, and various skin-lightening creams, BMA Commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato said on Sunday.
In a media briefing in Pretoria, Masiapato also announced that 8,000 people were arrested in the second quarter of the 2025-2026 financial year for attempting to enter the country illegally.
He said the majority were Basotho nationals, followed by Mozambicans and Zimbabweans.
Masiapato said the briefing was “held at a critical time when the nation is currently observing the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.”
“Therefore, as the BMA, we reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection and seamless facilitation of the movement of women and all the vulnerable groups as and when they present themselves across any of our 71 ports of entry.”
The briefing also detailed festive season law enforcement operations and highlighted the movement of people and goods across South Africa’s ports of entry from July 1, to September 30, 2025.
“Further, this briefing is taking place just two weeks after the BMA successfully facilitated the seamless movement of more than 40 Heads of State, other government leaders, various delegates, technical teams and journalists who came to attend the G20 Leader’s Summit,” Masiapato said.
The G20 summit was held in late November in Johannesburg, Gauteng province.
He added, “This was the second-largest international event which the BMA had to facilitate since the BRICS summit which was held in August of 2023. These heightened movements remained instrumental in testing and strengthening our systems for high-impact and sophisticated high-security movements of dignitaries.”
Masiapato said the BMA’s second-quarter performance report for 2025 and 2026 showed that “in this second quarter of 2025 and 2026 financial year, the BMA achieved 11 of its 12 quarterly targets amounting to 92% achievement rate of targets as contained in its Annual Performance Plan despite its persisting challenges that has been widely articulated.”
This quarter, according to him, was characterized by heightened operational activities which were mainly driven by the number of preparatory meetings for the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
“Just in the quarter of three months, the BMA facilitated a number of dignitaries who came to attend more than forty (40) various G20 track meetings in various parts of the country.”
He said the Grobler’s Bridge port of entry with Botswana facilitated a significant number of members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) who came to attend their September pilgrimage at the City of Moria in Limpopo Province.
With all these activities, the BMA immigration officers processed a total of 9,283,658 travelers as they were entering and leaving South Africa in the second quarter of the financial year.”
“This represents an increase of about 23% of processed travelers compared to the same period in 2024 where only 7,576,650 movements were recorded,” he told the media.
“With the help of surveillance technology, mainly the drones, about 8,135 apprehensions were affected across the various ports of entry and the respective vulnerable segments, of which 4,092 were undocumented, 2,061 were inadmissible and 1,982 were undesirables.”
He said the majority of the intercepted foreign nationals were Basotho, followed by Mozambicans, Zimbabweans and Swati nationals. READ MORE