By Professor Mosibudi Mangena
Three happenings in the last little while give a glimpse of what wonderful things we are capable of as a nation.
First is the hard-breaking story of the disappearance of little Joshlin Smith, determined by the court to have been trafficked by her mother Kelly Smith and her two accomplices, Steveno van Rhyn and Jacques Appollis.
To recognise the community’s role in searching for Joshlin, the high court in the Western Cape moved its sitting from Cape Town to Saldanha Bay.
The proceedings in a multi-purpose hall gave the community an opportunity to follow them from beginning to end.
At the conclusion of the trial, where the accused were found guilty, Judge Nathan Erasmus thanked the women who prayed outside the hall every day just before the commencement of the court proceedings.
This was a master stroke to crown the noble gesture of taking the court to the community.
The court did not have to move the hearing to Saldanha Bay, but it did in honour of the community.
The second concerns the solution of the mystery disappearance of the three Free State constables, Cebekhulu Linda, Boipelo Senoge and Keamogetswe Buys.
They went missing while travelling from Bloemfontein to Limpopo where they were deployed.
It seems the constables were travelling on the N1 at night in pouring rain, at least around Gauteng.
Initial investigations suggest that the car overturned, jumped the barrier and fell into the river at about two o’clock in the morning.
There would probably be very few vehicles on the road at that time, meaning no one witnessed the crash. With rain bucketing down, there would be no skid marks on the road.
With the Hennops River reported to have been flowing strongly at the time, their car would have submerged in the water, causing their cellphones and the tracker on their vehicle to die instantly.
All these factors would have made it almost impossible to trace them. We saw the authorities deploying all sorts of resources, some quite sophisticated, that ensured the recovery of their bodies and the vehicle.
The families were able to bury their loved ones and find closure.
The third was the announcements by the Border Management Authority (BMA) after the Easter weekend period of its successes in managing migration during that busy period.
They told the nation how they smoothly managed the flow of travellers, but more importantly, how they thwarted the usual illegal entry into the country, of both people and goods, using drones.
Many of us have bemoaned the excuse of so-called porous borders for a long time. Countries do not just complain about how long their borders are, but take steps to safeguard them.
Citizens take to the streets so often to protest against illegal foreign nationals in the country, leading to labeling of South Africans as xenophobic.
South Africans are not xenophobic. The crime we can be accused of is incompetence of huge proportions when it comes to the management of migration.
The BMA tells us that it was able to intercept thousands of migrants trying to enter the country illegally.
They also apprehended several facilitators, that is, people who assist border jumpers for a fee.
Police tell us that some of the guns used in cash-in-transit heists are smuggled into the country and that drugs, prohibited pesticides, dynamite to blow up ATMs , and illegal cigarettes are brought in the same way.
Migration is a worldwide phenomenon that should be embraced, but it must be legal.
The three things above demonstrate that South Africans are capable of achieving good, kind and heart-warming deeds. We just need political will and a capable state.
• Professor Mangena is a former minister of science and technology
