Briefing the media on traveller statistics on Sunday, Cwele said the increased movements were influenced mainly by tourism, cross border employment, business and education programmes. The statistics are for the period 1 December 2018 to 15 January 2019, he said.
He added: “Statistics on traveller movement are an important indicator on how busy our ports are, and how efficient we are in processing movements.
“When comparing statistics for the period 1 December to 15 January over the past two years, we see a marginal increase of 0.61%. We therefore this year we recorded 6,852,972 movements compared to 6,811.510 movements in 2018.”
According to the minister, the top nationalities cleared at ports of entry over this period were from neighbours Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia, Swaziland, and Botswana. Non-African states were Britain, Germany, and United States of America.
Among the entry points, Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport cleared the highest volume of travellers of 997,167. It was followed by Beitbridge (bordering Zimbabwe) at 884 992, then Lebombo (Botswana) with 625,975, Ficksburg Bridge (Lesotho) with 471,474 and Maseru Bridge with 428 038.