If a white man can say drop border gates in Africa, the #ANC led government will do it within hours.

The border gates mean nothing to an African. No African ever failed to visit any neighbouring country because they do not have papers. Never. They either pay for easy access or cut the fence.

Before, the coloniser erect border fences late 20th century, my parents walked about 70 km a day to Mozambique to visit their families. My family and the whole village in Islington, Bushbuckridge received Mozambicans in numbers without asking anything from them but provide shelter, medication and food as they arrive hungry and sick in numbers in late 70's and early 80's.

They are now South Africans and we are one big family. When I am in Mozambique, I am at home. I sometimes cross the border without producing a passport without any authority noticing just to have fun in defying the unjust imperial system.

Here is the systematic problem. An unfortunate South African, Mozambican or Zimbabwean finds it difficult to get an ID due to various reasons. When they have, they still have challenges to get passport. There are many who are now married but do not have IDs.

Lets ignore the above because those ones will do anything to survive and sending them to jail because of lack of papers is better than straying the street without food and shelter. A person with a passport who may be working as a contractor or still looking for the job in South Africa, is expected by law to cross the border every month or 3 months maximum. It cost at least R1000 just to go home and back to work if you are in Gauteng.

Does this Government expect these people to afford such let alone comply with this unjust law? Once you miss to stamp your passport, you are now in the country illegal and officers will refuse to stamp your passport unless you are prepared to pay bribe. The easiest way for most is to avoid stamping passports and just pay their way in and out. Thats a lucrative business for local entrepreneurs, soldiers and home affairs officials.

My temporary visit in China by chance, helped me to understand the need to monitor movement of people without restricting them. In China, every person report at the border post when they leave their provinces (province to province). All they do is to report where they are going, purpose and for how long. That is done to ensure that his/her tax meant for social services such as health, security, etc are properly re-allocated.

In Africa, a Chinese system will immediately eliminate unnecessary border controls that comes with tax burden, and looting of resources in the name of keeping and deporting "illegal" immigrants. Such money can be used for regional infrastructure, social and economic development.

You may say whatever you want to say, the call by #EFF to collapse imperial borders in Africa is just. It will win the date.