Pretoria – The Border Control Agency has moved to tighten border control by using drones to introduce new security stamps.
During a media briefing on Sunday, August 3, 2025, Border Management Agency (BMA) Commissioner Dr. Michael Masiapato said the past few months have revealed widespread use of fraudulent immigrant stamps.
At least 14 passports with fraudulent immigration stamps have been identified and confiscated.
To combat such crimes, Dr. Masiapato said new security measures will be implemented across ports of entry to improve traveler verification measures and efficient law enforcement operations.
Dr. Masiapato said on Friday, August 1, 2025, a new BMA immigration security stamp was launched to replace the old ones.
“This initiative represents a deliberate step to form part of the BMA's broader commitment to strengthening national security and increasing the integrity of the border management process,” said Dr. Masiapato.
“In this regard, we have worked with the government's printing work to design a new stamp with the highest security standards, including the BMA logo, to prevent tampering, counterfeiting and misuse.
“Before the new stamps were introduced, all key stakeholders across the criminal justice system and the border control ecosystem were consulted and involved in the matter.”
Dr. Masiapato said the withdrawal of the old stamps was coincided with the distribution of the new stamps.
“Each of the immigration officers is assigned a specific stamp containing a unique number linked to each officer if it is found that the assigned stamp promotes illegal migration to the country,” Dr. Masiapato said.
“We started with immigration-based stamps, but now we are embarking on redesigning new stamps for other special features such as agriculture, health and the environment.
“As a BMA, we want to demonstrate that it is the responsibility of the traveler to ensure that passports are properly and legally processed at official ports of entry and not declared denied, deported, admitted or even arrested.”
Dr Masiapato said 9,954 people were intercepted, arrested and deported while attempting to enter South Africa illegally.
Of these, 5 826 were undocumented, 2 127 were unacceptable, and 2 001 was undesirable.
He said that the majority of the individuals intercepted were Basotho, Zimbabweans and Mozambicans.
In the first quarter of this year, border guards blocked 622 people, about 496, who tried to enter South Africa illegally.
The use of drone technology has improved the ability to find BMA's border jumpers.
“In April 2025, we dispatched eight border guards for pilot training as we continue to strengthen our border security efforts by leveraging technology-driven solutions such as the use of drones for border surveillance,” Dr. Masiapato said.
“Today, we are proud to announce that six Border Guards who graduated and qualified as drone pilots on July 14, 2025 have graduated and qualified.
“In the past, we have been operating drones at the Ministry of Agriculture's drone pilots at various ports.”
Dr Masiapato said the BMA is planning to send more border patrols for drone pilot training.
Drone pilot training was in line with the move to modernize border law enforcement and improve detection of various cross-border crimes, including illegal migration, human trafficking, commodities and human smuggling.
“The skills they have acquired will strengthen border security efforts, particularly in identified and vulnerable segments of the perimeter, with increased surveillance and improved visibility.
“In addition, we partnered with the Reserve Bank of South Africa to train border guards on counterfeit detection and currency handling, giving them the skills needed to identify counterfeit bills and coins in circulation,” said Dr. Masiapato.
“Finally, the BMA acknowledges that more needs to be done as other risks continue to emerge.
“That's why we continue to implement robust contingency plans and emergency response protocols on our ports to deal with incidents that may occur.
“BMA is dedicated to maintaining the integrity of our borders.”
