Quthing, April 06 — The Minister of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and the Police Mr Lebona Lephema undertook a tour in Tele border post on Thursday.
Minister Lephema’s tour was intended to assess the flow of travellers at Tele border post in Lesotho and South Africa to identify challenges encountered by travellers that cross the border to Lesotho for Easter holidays.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Lephepa commended the good service to travellers at the border post as Basotho crossing without legal documents are not arrested but given an opportunity to go home and get the passports to cross legally.
He said a challenge of commercialisation of Tele border post will be addressed when negotiations on this issue between Lesotho and South Africa are continuing. He added that lack of commercial services at the border has different challenges that include promotion of trespassing, poor revenue collection and human trafficking.
The Quthing District Administrator Mrs. ‘Mapaseka K’hesa emphasised that a long time plight of Tele border post to be commercialised impact negatively in development of business in the district as investors fail to open business and create jobs in the district due to long distances from commercial borders to the district.
Speaking at the same event The Quthing District Police Commander Senior Superintendent ‘Mamoipone Mohloai said the relations of Quthing and South Africa crime prevention committees are continuing as they jointly fight and prevent stock theft though lack of transport for the Quthing police remains a challenge. He added support of the committees in Quthing and immediate response to cross-bother stock theft alarms from committees is not easy due to lack of transport.
The Immigration Officer from Tele border Post in South Africa Ms. Philile K’humalo said the flow of Basotho travellers from South Africa is not as heavy as during the Christmas holidays. She said that the challenge of Basotho from South Africa to travel with children without legal documents is continuing and called on the government of Lesotho to assist Basotho, including children, to get passports.
The District Passport Officer from Department of Home Affairs Mr. Morapeli Nt’sinyi said passports are issued to adults and children as they are all expected to have passports when travelling to other countries. He appealed to Basotho to have legal documents and avoid facing legal charges in other countries since it is an offense to travel without legal documents.
The Minister of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and the Police Mr Lebona Lephema lastly undertook a similar tour at Tele border post in December last year during Christmas holidays. Minister Lephema also inspected Forisburg , Ficksburg, Vanroyeens and Maseru border posts on Thursday with the same purpose.
ENDS BM
