FIRST the poisonous viper, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir slid quietly into the African Savannah and made his getaway from South Africa when the International Criminal Court (Hague) issued a warrant for his arrest.
Then the highfalutin Gupta clan made a hasty dash for freedom when they abandoned all their business entities, sold off their assets and hopped on a plane to Dubai. Now the self-proclaimed prophet, lily-livered Shepherd Bushiri, also trading as Major 1, has deserted his flock and fled to his homeland, Malawi while out on bail in South Africa for rape and fraud charges involving millions.
In-between all this, a planeload of Indians with enough gold jewellery to sink a ship landed at the Waterkloof Air Force Base, a high-level security installation. For entire week-long wedding celebrations, millions were splashed at Sun City, with government officials mingling with the guests, soaking up the heat and getting sozzled on free alcoholic fizz.
Our border control is too weak, or in some cases non-existent. Just like our prison wardens, border control police are easily bribed. The number of illegal immigrants on our streets illustrates how easy it is to gain entry into South Africa illegally. They do not crawl through holes in the fences. I very much doubt that.
Two of the major entry points – from Zimbabwe (Beit Bridge) and Mozambique – are used in the illicit cigarette trade and also by drug couriers. Tighter border control will stop this plethora of social evils and bring to an end to smuggling and daring escapes from those running from the law.
Kevin Govender, Shallcross