THE LESOTHO-SOUTH AFRICA BORDER PROBLEM

The strip of land spanning just over 900km along the Lesotho-South Africa border remains a source of economic loss and trauma for the many rural South Africans living there. Sabrina Dean spoke to Dr Jane Buys and Richard Chelin about the safety and security challenges in the area.

- Sabrina Dean

The Kingdom of Lesotho, which is entirely landlocked, shares a border of 909km with three of South Africa’s provinces, namely the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape. In many instances, the border does not exist in any physical sense, but is an “artificial border on a map”, according to researcher Richard Chelin.

Chelin works on the Enact Africa program, which is funded by the EU and aims to enhance the response to transnational organized crime on the continent, at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). He specializes in three areas, namely cybercrime, natural resource exploitation, and wildlife crimes such as poaching and illicit trade in fauna or flora.

It was his research in these fields that prompted him to take a closer look at the effects of transnational livestock theft committed by crime syndicates operating between South Africa and Lesotho.

“We’ve found that this [livestock theft] has a much more detrimental effect on the economy than previously thought, and is becoming more violent,” he says. He adds that organized livestock theft feeds into other, more serious, types of transnational organized crimes such as drugs, weapons and human trafficking. Ultimately, this results in the creation of illicit financial flows, which are estimated to cost African countries more than US$50 billion (about R700 billion) per annum.

POROUS BORDER