Nomvra Zelda Mabuza|Published 5 hours in advance
At South Africa's northern border, intersections are quiet, steadily, and barely documented. Public debates often focus on foreign visibility, but much more important reality is largely ignored. South Africa has not conducted a comprehensive national audit for over a decade. There is no system tracking that integrates who enters, who is staying, and how cross-border movements intersect with labor markets, infrastructure pressures, or regional development. This absence is not just a management gap. It is a entrenched institutional blind spot that weakens governance, inflames public anxiety, and undermines our credibility on a continent that is heading towards data-mediated integration.
The Ministry of Home Affairs operates with organs from other states in fragmented or outdated systems. The biometric border management system, budgeted at R400 million between 2020 and 2023, remains partially deployed and disconnected from labor, policing and local information networks. As confirmed in the 2025 white paper on labour migrants, South Africa has yet to establish a functional labour market information system that links cross-border movement data to national planning. Stats SA's Quarterly Workforce Survey and annual population estimates do not have a clear picture of undocumented populations. Estimates of civil society and academics vary widely from over 2.5 to 5 million undocumented immigrants. In this vacuum, policies are built, services are expanded, and myths are allowed to stick to assumptions.
Unknown costs are rarely borne by those in power. In fact, this sustained opacity benefits a wide range of actors. Beitbridge alone was made possible by unsupervised intersections and document fraud at R690 million estimated for passing the estimated contraband. The informal labor market, especially in construction, agriculture and retail, absorbs undocumented workers under exploitative conditions, replaces regulations, and absorbs depressing wages.
According to a 2022 Wego survey, 44% of unofficial traders in Johannesburg's city centre are foreigners, and they rarely overlook them. At the top of the labor market, foreign experts are frequently employed in sectors such as academia, banking and technology. However, there is no public system for tracking or disassemblying these appointments by accrual, skill category, or permission status.
This lack of integrated data limits institutional accountability and makes it difficult to assess either the size of cross-border employment or alignment with national development priorities. For political actors, there is no reliable data, so migration can become a rhetorical device. This can distract attention from policy obstacles when evidence is lacking.
The vacuum meaning of this data extends across all layers of governance. Trafficking, a R10 billion industry in South Africa, thrives in a blind spot between policy and enforcement. The cost of deportation alone has reached R1.2 billion over the past two years. Funds that can be redirected to stabilizing urban infrastructure and creating employment channels for local youth. South Africa's 8.9 million NEET youth (not employment, education, or training) compete in an increasingly chaotic working environment. Without disassembled skills and migration data, their anxiety is misdirected and their outlook is uncertain. Meanwhile, the potential for the R50 trillion Rurion market of AFCFTA is built on the free movement of people and goods, assuming that member states can measure at least who is moving. Currently, South Africa is unable to meet that assumption.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 70% of intra-SADC migrants are formal and informal, reaching their peak within South African borders. As neighbouring countries such as Eswatini, Mozambique and Namibia become more and more able to retain zones or corridors for redirected global movements, South Africa is increasingly absorbing the outcomes of upstream policy decisions. Without regional coordination and ongoing cross-border insights, the move to advance into South Africa is untraceable and becomes increasingly difficult to manage. But without this ability, we remain unaware of the scale, conditions, and outcomes. The lack of regional coordination is now more than a technical failure. It's a strategic risk.
Migration data is more than a governance tool. It is a lever for national development. The 2023 Africa Transition Report shows that countries that link mobility to infrastructure, skills and labor planning see stronger growth and social cohesion. Africa's growth now depends on human mobility. Artisans, engineers, students and informal traders travel across borders. However, South Africa does not incorporate mobility into its planning framework. Without an integrated data system, migrations are not tracked, unorganized and underrated. With data scientists and statisticians gather this November, African states are preparing to gain insights, from the South African Statistical Association Summit in Goten to the Nairobi Global Data and AI Summit. South Africa must do the same.
South Africa's leadership in Africa cannot rest on emotions alone. True Pan-Africanism is not about boundless idealism. It concerns accountable systems, shared data, and the ability to protect both sovereignty and solidarity through intelligence and cooperation. Liberalization is not foresight until it has the ability to measure movement, protect the labour market and coordinate with its neighbors. It is volatile. Pan-Africanism must evolve from declaration to data. That's how we protect the integrity of regional integration.
The answer lies in building something intelligent rather than simply closing boundaries. South Africa's response capabilities will be conducted over 12 months and begin with a national migration audit based on inter-functional collaboration. A digitally-enabled transition observatory pinned to Pretoria and integrated with SADC partners will help you fill gaps in critical information and restore transparency. This should be supplemented by a real-time regional registry and a public dashboard that notifies public debate rather than burn.
This is not merely a national necessity. It's nationwide. Training up to 100,000 NEET youth in transition analysis, digital registry design and local coordination creates new professional pathways while restoring confidence in national functioning. Private sector institutions, from banks to transport companies, must invest in systems that support clarity and social cohesion, and must also meet new standards of identity verification and border logistics.
Cities such as countries like London and Morocco show that when implemented with robust surveillance, the mobile data system they rely on can build coordination and accountability. However, even these models need to prevent overexpenditure and privacy violations. Africa doesn't lack talent or templates. What we need is clarity in our vision and institutional courage to act on what we find.
South Africa risks delays, not because migration is inherently unstable, but because it is not clearly seen enough to be constructively managed. Visibility is no longer an option. It is a strategy of sovereignty, unity and credibility in the future of the locality already unfolding around us.
Nomvula Zeldah Mabuza is a risk governance and compliance specialist with extensive experience in strategic risk and industrial operations. She holds a diploma in business management (accounting) from Brunel University in the UK and is an MBA candidate at Henry Business School in South Africa.
***The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of an independent media. IOL.
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