As a few politicians have found out in recent times, building an effective wall or fence isn’t as easy as it sounds.

The border between South Africa and Zimbabwe has long been an altogether too easy smuggling point for decades, and as our country went into lockdown last month, officials raced to construct a more effective border fence.

Costing a cool R37 million, the fence, found around Beitbridge, has already become a laughing stock and has failed dismally to curb the influx of people and illegal trade.

The Sunday Times recently visited, and their report is both worrying and embarrassing:

“This is not a fence,” laughed Busani Sibanda, moments after crossing the Limpopo River into SA.

“This thing doesn’t even take me five minutes to cut through. We make big holes so we can get suitcases with cigarettes through and small ones so we can get people and groceries through.”

Soldiers who patrol the fence admit they are fighting a losing battle trying to stem the flow of people across the border.

So far the department of public works has paid R21m to Magwa Construction for the 40km fence. At 1.8m high, it consists of six rolls of coiled razor wire and a razor wire grid.

40 kilometres for R37 million – roughly R1 million per kilometre, which appears to have been a total waste of money.

Here’s the video feature that accompanied the Sunday Times story:

You can’t blame the people crossing the border, because Zimbabwe’s situation is truly dire, but questions must be asked of public works and infrastructure minister Patricia de Lille, who is due to visit the site today for an inspection:

…de Lille, whose department approved the construction, later asked the auditor-general to probe possible irregularities.

In e-mailed responses to questions from the Sunday Times this week, De Lille said critical areas relating to land borders, which need immediate securing, have been identified.

“The intervention was to ensure no persons cross into or out of the country … to contain the virus,” said De Lille.

“Magwa [Construction] is appropriately qualified and was already working on a repair and maintenance project at Beitbridge. The overall sum, funded through the department’s infrastructure budget, covers materials; disposal of old damaged fence, accelerated construction, additional security.”

She said the fence, which was completed on April 20 as planned, was considered urgent because of the state of disaster that had been proclaimed.

One of the people featured in the video above, Kawia Rural Anti-Poaching owner Izak Nel, says the situation is so bad that his patrollers found people smuggling 90 steel fence poles, taken from the fence, across the border.

Never a good look when your fence itself is being smuggled.

Nel added that in just two days last week, his patrollers found 36 separate holes cut in the fence, many of which were made in broad daylight.

Desperate Zimbabweans cannot be blamed for trying to survive, but with so many South Africans in dire need of financial assistance, perhaps this R37 million could have been better, or more efficiently, spent.

You can read the full Sunday Times report here.

[source:sundaytimes]