Southern Africa’s ambition to deepen regional integration will increasingly be tested at its borders, with President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for the accelerated establishment of One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) and the modernisation of systems that govern the movement of goods and people across the region.
Closing the 46th Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in eThekwini on Monday evening, President Ramaphosa placed more efficient borders at the heart of South Africa’s Chairship, linking them to regional industrialisation, infrastructure development and lower costs of trade.
He said the objective was straightforward: goods and people should not lose valuable time at borders because neighbouring countries operate disconnected systems.
“We must accelerate the establishment of the identified One-Stop Border Posts. A truck carrying goods across Southern Africa should not spend days waiting at a border,” he said.
The President said borders should facilitate legitimate trade and movement while retaining effective security and customs controls.
“Our borders must facilitate legitimate trade and movement while maintaining effective security and customs controls,” the SADC Chair said.
From two stops to one
One-Stop Border Posts are designed to address one of the most persistent obstacles to efficient cross-border movement: the duplication of processes when travellers and trucks are required to stop at separate border facilities operated by neighbouring countries.
The Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) has identified inland border posts as a major constraint on the unimpeded flow of cross-border traffic, with challenges including inadequate infrastructure, fragmented systems, multiple stakeholders operating in silos and different operating arrangements between countries.
SADC’s Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan has prioritised the transformation of traditional two-stop borders into One-Stop Border Posts.
The C-BRTA has identified a number of OSBPs and regional border initiatives, including Chirundu, Kazungula, Kasumbalesa, Lebombo and Mamuno, as part of broader efforts to improve corridor efficiency.
The significance of the President’s call is therefore not simply about constructing new border facilities. It is about changing the way border agencies and neighbouring countries work together.
Cross-border transport transformation
South Africa has been pursuing a broader transformation of its cross-border road transport system through improved regulation, digital services and efforts to reduce operational constraints.
The C-BRTA’s mandate includes improving the unimpeded flow of freight and commuters across the SADC region, reducing operational constraints, facilitating market access and supporting social and economic development.
The Agency has also introduced digital tools such as Cross-Easy, which allows cross-border operators to apply for permits online, track applications, make payments and receive notifications digitally.
The system forms part of efforts to reduce administrative burdens and improve the experience of freight and passenger operators.
The C-BRTA is also pursuing an Operator Compliance Accreditation System designed to reduce transit delays and improve supply-chain visibility and corridor efficiency by using risk-based compliance mechanisms.
These interventions point towards a broader transformation in which physical infrastructure is combined with digital systems, regulatory harmonisation and better coordination between border agencies.
Digitising the border
The transformation is also taking place at regional level.
SADC and its tripartite partners have been developing digital systems to make the movement of people and goods more efficient.
The Corridor Trip Monitoring System (CTMS), developed under the Tripartite Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme, is designed to integrate transport, immigration and customs systems and provide advance information on drivers, crew and passengers.
The system also supports electronic documentation, cargo tracking and corridor performance monitoring, with the broader objective of reducing travel and transit times and enabling more efficient border procedures.
SADC has described digital transformation as a critical enabler of its Vision 2050 objectives, with technology expected to support more efficient state structures, economic activity, skills development and job creation.
The region’s previous work on migration has likewise identified digital interventions, e-visas and cross-border identity management as important tools for facilitating movement while strengthening security.
This is increasingly important as SADC attempts to balance two objectives that are sometimes presented as competing: making legitimate movement easier while making it more difficult for criminals and irregular movements to exploit weaknesses in border systems.
Making migration management smarter
Migration featured in the President’s broader call for a more connected region.
SADC’s approach recognises that migration is a permanent feature of regional economic and social life and that well-managed migration can contribute to development, labour markets and regional integration.
The region has previously identified the need for coordinated migration policies, stronger migration data systems and measures that facilitate safe and regular movement of people. Its Labour Migration Action Plan was designed to strengthen labour migration governance, protect migrant workers and increase their contribution to socio-economic development.
Digital systems are becoming increasingly important to this agenda.
South Africa itself has been modernising migration management through electronic visa systems and the Electronic Travel Authorisation, with the Department of Home Affairs describing digital migration management as a means of improving efficiency while strengthening security and supporting tourism and economic growth.
At regional level, the proposed SADC Tourism UNIVISA is another example of how migration and tourism policy can intersect. The proposed instrument seeks to facilitate tourism travel across participating SADC countries through a common visa arrangement.
The border as an economic instrument
For the region’s industrialisation ambitions, the border is more than an immigration checkpoint.
It is part of the economic infrastructure.
A truck delayed for hours or days at a border adds costs to manufacturers, exporters, importers and consumers. Delays can disrupt supply chains, reduce the competitiveness of regional producers and undermine the value of investments made in roads, rail and ports.
The Department of Transport has acknowledged that long queues at strategic borders affect regional logistics value chains and place strain on transport infrastructure and cargo security.
South Africa has consequently been working on improved processing capacity at critical crossings including Beitbridge, Lebombo and Maseru Bridge, alongside greater inter-agency coordination and digitisation of border procedures.
This is why President Ramaphosa’s call for OSBPs sits directly within South Africa’s wider Chairship priority of infrastructure-led regional integration.
The objective is to connect the entire logistics chain from production centre, through roads and railways, to ports and across borders, rather than improving one component while leaving bottlenecks elsewhere.
A border that connects rather than divides
The President’s closing address ultimately framed the issue in terms of what regional integration should feel like for citizens.
He said Southern Africa should move towards a region where borders connect rather than divide its people, and where the benefits of integration are visible in everyday life.
This means faster movement for freight operators, more predictable conditions for businesses, easier travel for tourists and legitimate travellers, and stronger systems to combat trafficking and other cross-border crimes.
It also means making existing regional commitments work.
SADC has already developed strategies, protocols and digital initiatives aimed at facilitating trade and movement. The challenge now is to bring these instruments together at the border and ensure that they function in practice.
President Ramaphosa said the region must judge itself by measurable outcomes rather than the number of resolutions adopted.
“We must measure our progress not only in meetings held and agreements signed, but in kilometres of railway rehabilitated, megawatts of electricity generated and transmitted, border-crossing times reduced, factories established, intra-regional trade expanded and jobs created,” he said.
For South Africa’s Chairship, the border therefore becomes one of the clearest places where the promise of SADC can be tested.
If regional corridors become faster, if border systems become more integrated, if digital tools reduce paperwork and waiting times, and if legitimate movement becomes easier while security improves, regional integration moves from a policy concept into something citizens and businesses can experience.
That is ultimately the direction President Ramaphosa set at the close of the Summit:
“Let us leave eThekwini with renewed determination to build a Southern Africa in which our borders connect rather than divide us; in which our resources are transformed into prosperity; and in which the benefits of regional integration are felt in the lives of all our people,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
