EDITORIAL | Covid border fence idea had holes in it from the word go

Sunday Times Daily visited Beitbridge last April to report on the hastily constructed R37m border fence between SA and Zimbabwe. The trip all but confirmed our suspicions. “We make big holes so we can get suitcases with cigarettes through, and small ones so we can get people and groceries through,” a smuggler remarked casually. A month later, an exasperated minister of public works and infrastructure Patricia de Lille told MPs the fence “was hardly up for one day and the crooks came through with cases of cigarettes and smuggling food”.

That outcome would have been predictable for any average citizen; how it could not have been preempted by those deciding to build the fence is a mystery. What followed was even more predictable: an investigation. The auditor-general was to look into whether SA got value for money from the project and whether due processes were followed in appointing the contractors. The Special Investigating Unit became involved and wanted the contracts with two of the construction companies to be set aside. Fourteen departmental employees faced disciplinary action for misconduct during the procurement and construction of the multimillion-rand border.

Now, almost a year later, the question has arisen: Should we spend even more money to mend the fence? On Tuesday, MPs thankfully made short shrift of De Lille’s department’s plans to do so. Members of parliament’s standing committee of public accounts dismissed a proposal tabled by acting director-general Imtiaz Fazel to “replace the structural supports that were removed, where the fence has not collapsed”. 

This time it was the ANC’s Bheki Hadebe’s turn to be exasperated. “Let me remind the colleagues that we went there, we have physically tested the strength and the quality of that fence. We have seen with our naked eyes that fence is easily breakable. It is easy to breach that fence – effortlessly. It does not qualify to be called a border fence.” Committee chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa simply asked: “We can’t be thinking about repairing a fence that ordinarily is not fit for purpose ... What are you actually repairing?” 

So overwhelming was the reaction that De Lille herself ended up conceding it might not have been the best of ideas. “I certainly share the anxiety of the committee, and I have also already expressed to the department that I do not accept the proposal that we repair,” she said.

The time and money wasted thus far – and what the R37m could have been used for – is enough to make taxpaying citizens cry themselves to sleep at night. Not to mention the lack of thought that went into the bright idea to build it in the first place. The decision to ditch the repairs is sensible. But now our leaders need to go back to the drawing board and rethink our border policing strategies that are clearly in dire need of a complete overhaul.