Back to the drawing board for Border Bill

Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi

Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi

Published May 11, 2017

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The ANC has been forced to go back to the drawing board after opposition parties stymied its efforts to pass a proposed law that would create a single entity to manage the country’s borders.

For the second time in less than six months opposition parties yesterday used their vote to block the approval of the Border Management Authority Bill.

Parliament could not get the required simple majority of 201 MPs to pass the bill, effectively shutting the door on the legislation.

There were fewer than 200 MPs in the chamber after the opposition staged a walkout before the vote on the bill, which they rejected.

ANC MPs pleaded with the opposition that defects in the bill had been corrected.

Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize even told Parliament the opposition had not looked at the amendments in the bill, which accommodated their views.

“The amended bill will not collect revenue and even 1% collected at the border gates will be deposited to the Sars (SA Revenue Service) bank account or the National Revenue Fund,” said Mkhize.

She said powers to collect taxes at customs remained with the Sars.

This was despite objections by the opposition parties that the intention of the bill was to create a single agency that would strip Sars of powers to collect revenue.

The DA, EFF and Cope yesterday told Parliament they did not support the bill.

EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu said there was no single agency in the country that would be able to have the skills and capacity of Sars to collect revenue.

He said Sars collected billions of rand a year in revenue at customs.

Shivambu said they would not allow the Balkanisation of revenue collection in the country, that function must remain with Sars.

Haniff Hoosen of the DA said the government had not come clean on how much the new agency, which would merge all the entities to manage the borders, would cost.

He said estimates indicated the Border Management Authority would cost R22 billion to run. But if the South African National Defence Force ran that function it would cost R3bn.

Mkhize said the figures presented were incorrect.

She said the budget would be R3.9bn a year and added that an additional R6bn would be needed over the next 10 years.

It was back to square one for the ANC to bring the bill on the agenda of Parliament. The ruling party will have to ensure at the next session the Bill is presented for a vote that it has all its MPs to back it.

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