Africa-Press – Lesotho. South Africa’s Disaster Management Act, which governs the country’s response to Covid-19 by way of lockdown regulations, has been updated to reopen a border post between Lesotho and the Eastern Cape.
Border closures – of air, sea, and land ports – have been a common response to the Covid-19 pandemic on a global scale. Most countries have limited cross-border movement at some point during the pandemic to limit the spread of Covid-19 and importation of new coronavirus variants.
South Africa’s hard lockdown, first implemented at the end of March 2020, closed all 53 land borders with neighbouring countries, with exceptions limited to the transportation of fuel, cargo, and goods.
These closures were maintained until October, when 18 of South Africa’s land ports with Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, and Eswatini reopened.
This grew to 20 open borders by the end of the year. Battling a second wave of Covid-19 at the start of 2021, South Africa reverted and temporarily closed its borders.
This included the closure of South Africa’s busiest border posts, including Beitbridge, Lebombo, Maseru Bridge, Oshoek, Ficksburg, and Kopfontein. The 20 land borders were reopened in mid-February.
The Telle Bridge port of entry, connecting South Africa with Lesotho, remained closed throughout lockdown. It reopened on Tuesday, following an update to the Disaster Management Act by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
The border post is located close to the town of Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape along the R392. It’s a single paved carriageway which crosses the Telle River, which is a tributary of the Orange River.
It’s a non-commercial point of entry, which prohibits the movement of goods over a certain value through the post between South Africa and Lesotho. Prior to Telle Bridge reopening, the only operational land port between the Eastern Cape and Lesotho was Qachasnek.
Ramatsilitso and Ongeluksnek, the only other two land border posts between the Eastern Cape and Lesotho, remain closed. The Telle Bridge port of entry, re-opened on publication of the government gazette, operates between 06:00 and 22:00, according to the department of home affairs.
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