Chairperson, I have already stated that we have come up with concept of Border Management Authority, specifically out of the realisation that the borders are porous. If you read that Bill you will understand exactly why we are saying it must be passed and why the National Assembly agreed with us and passed it to try and deal with ... having said so, I also don't want us to ... [Inaudible.] ... of the history of Africa.
The insinuation that you made about crossing the border and buying chips, which you made cynically, there are people who do that everyday, and they should. There is nothing wrong in crossing into Mozambique to buy chips and then come back. There are people who do that almost every day; and we cannot wrong them. The question is how do you control them? Those who watch the news will realise that I was in Lesotho at Maseru border coast; I met the Minister and the Deputy Minister. I met school kids who stays in Maseru and goes to schools in South Africa everyday. It is not something that doesn't happen in this continent and there is nothing wrong and we are not about to stop it. All we said is that we shouldn't be stamping their
passports. We should find a way of making them pass. There are people who sleep in Maseru every night but works in Ladybrand in South Africa everyday or even in Bloemfontein.
But more than that, there are communities here in this continent who is one community - one village but the border is cutting through them. You expect them not to go to this side of the border, not only to buy bread or even to ask for salt from their relatives? And we have such communities and one of them, we have regularised it between our borders with Botswana. We have put a specialised regime where people can cross both sides without any documents but in is controlled way. And I was discussing with Ministers in the areas like Lesotho that will give them such instances. So, when you talk about people crossing and buying chips and coming back, they do it and it is going to happen on this continent and it is not something that we are going to try and stop because it is happening among the same communities. Thank you.