Pretoria – The Border Management Authority has moved to tighten border controls by using drones and introducing new security stamps.
Speaking at a media briefing on Sunday, 3 August 2025, Commissioner of the Border Management Authority (BMA), Dr. Michael Masiapato, said that in the past few months, widespread use of fraudulent immigration stamps had been uncovered.
At least 14 passports bearing fraudulent immigration stamps were identified and confiscated.
To counter such crime, Dr. Masiapato said new security measures were going to be implemented across ports of entry to improve traveller verification means and efficient law enforcement operations.
Dr. Masiapato said on Friday, 1 August 2025, new BMA immigration security stamps were launched to replace the old ones.
“This initiative forms part of the BMA’s broader commitment to strengthening national security and represents a deliberate step towards enhancing the integrity of border control processes,” said Dr. Masiapato.
“In this regard, we collaborated with Government Printing Works and designed the new stamps with the highest security standards including the BMA logo to prevent tampering, forgery and unauthorised use.
“Before the introduction of the new stamps, all key stakeholder across the criminal justice system and the border management ecosystem were consulted and engaged on the matter.”
Dr. Masiapato said the withdrawal of the old stamps was carried out concurrently with the distribution of the new ones.
“Each of the immigration officers have been allocated a specific stamp with its unique number linked to each officer in order to trace back should their allocated stamp be found to facilitate illegal migration into the country,” Dr. Masiapato said.
“Whilst we started with immigration-based stamps, we are now embarking on redesigning new stamps for other specialised functions such as agriculture, health, and environment.
“As the BMA, we would like to indicate that it is the responsibility of the traveller to ensure that their passports are correctly and lawfully processed at official ports of entry to avoid being refused entry or deported, declared inadmissible or even arrested.”
Dr. Masiapato said 9 954 persons were intercepted, apprehended, and deported as they were attempting to enter South Africa illegally.
Of these, 5 826 were undocumented, 2 127 were inadmissible and 2 001 were undesirables.
He said the majority of the intercepted and deported individuals were Basotho, Zimbabweans, and Mozambicans.
In the first quarter of the year, Border Guards intercepted about 496 622 people who attempted to enter South Africa illegally.
The use of drone technology has enhanced the BMA’s ability to spot border jumpers.
“As we continue to strengthen our border security efforts by leveraging technology-driven solutions such as the usage of drones for border surveillance, during April 2025, we sent eight of our Border Guards for pilot training,” Dr. Masiapato said.
“Today, we are proud to announce that six (6) of our Border Guards graduated and qualified as drone pilots on the 14th of July 2025.
“In the past, we were being assisted by the drone pilots from the Department of Agriculture in operating our drones at our various Ports.”
Dr. Masiapato said the BMA plans to send more border guards for drone pilot training.
The drone pilot training was in line with moves to modernise border law enforcement and improve detection of a variety of cross-border crimes, including illegal migration, trafficking, goods, and human smuggling, among others.
“The skills they have acquired will strengthen border security efforts through enhanced surveillance and increased visibility, particularly in the identified vulnerable segments of the borderline.
“Further, we have also partnered with the South African Reserve Bank and trained the border guards on counterfeit detection and currency handling, and this gave them the necessary skills to identify counterfeit banknotes and coins in circulation,” said Dr. Masiapato.
“In closing, the BMA acknowledges that more needs to be done as other risks continue to emerge.
“As such, we continue to implement robust contingency plans and emergency response protocols at our ports to address any incidents that may arise.
“The BMA remains dedicated to upholding the integrity of our borders.”
