By Mayet & Associates Inc. | Cross-Border Commercial Law

Anyone who has moved goods, or simply themselves, through South Africa’s land ports of entry knows the frustration: two full sets of border formalities, one on each side of the line. Queue, process, drive a few hundred metres, and queue again. For commercial cargo, those duplicated stops translate directly into cost, delay and lost competitiveness across the region.

Parliament is now well advanced with legislation designed to change that. The One-Stop Border Post Bill proposes a fundamental redesign of how South Africa’s land borders operate, and for businesses trading across the South Africa Lesotho border and with Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini. It is a development worth watching closely.

From two stops to one

The Bill’s core purpose is to replace the traditional two-stop model, in which travellers and goods are processed separately by each country’s authorities on each side of the border, with a one-stop border post system. Under this model, exit and entry formalities for both states are completed at a single facility, allowing people, goods and vehicles to be processed and tracked in one combined operation.

The concept is not novel in the region, the Chirundu one-stop post between Zambia and Zimbabwe is a well-known example but the Bill would create the domestic legal architecture South Africa needs to implement it at scale.

The key mechanics of the Bill

International agreements and common control zones. The Bill empowers the Minister of Home Affairs to conclude agreements with neighbouring states to establish and jointly manage one-stop border posts. These agreements may create common control zones, shared areas in which officials of both countries operate and authorise officials to perform border law enforcement functions in accordance with South African law.

Criminal jurisdiction in the common control zone. As a general rule, jurisdiction over offences committed in a common control zone follows territory: each state deals with offences occurring on its side of the boundary, under its own laws. The Bill does, however, build in an important human rights safeguard. South Africa will retain jurisdiction over an offence committed in the South African portion of a common control zone where the conduct is also an offence under South African law, the accused is not a citizen of the adjoining state, and a conviction under the adjoining state’s laws could attract the death penalty. This carve-out reflects South Africa’s constitutional position on capital punishment and prevents the one-stop arrangement from becoming a conduit to execution.

Official transfers of money and goods. The Bill permits money and goods to be moved between the two states through a common control zone for official purposes without triggering the ordinary import and export control regime, but only where proper declarations are made and inventories maintained. This is a narrow facilitation measure for the operation of the shared facility itself, not a relaxation of customs law for traders.

Refused entry and unlawful entry. Where a person or goods are refused entry, or enter a state unlawfully, the Bill requires their return to the state from which they exited. The exit state may then take whatever measures its domestic law allows, provided this imposes no obligation on the entry state. In practical terms, being turned away at the entry counter means being handed back to the authorities on the other side of the same building.

Where the Bill stands now

The Bill was introduced in the National Assembly as a section 75 Bill, an ordinary Bill not affecting the provinces and was passed by the National Assembly on 4 November 2025, whereafter it was referred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.

On 24 June 2026, the NCOP’s Select Committee on Security and Justice held a public hearing on the Bill. With the public participation process now complete, the Committee is expected to conclude its deliberations and formally adopt the Bill by September 2026. If the Committee proposes amendments, the Bill will return to the National Assembly for consideration of those changes; if not, it will proceed to be passed by the NCOP and will come into operation on a date fixed by the President by proclamation in the Government Gazette.

In short: barring surprises, South Africa could have one-stop border post legislation on the statute book within the coming months, with implementation to follow border by border as agreements with neighbouring states are concluded.

Why this matters for the South Africa Lesotho corridor

For our clients, the most immediate significance lies on the Lesotho border. Lesotho is entirely surrounded by South Africa, and virtually all of its trade moves through South African land ports of entry, Maseru Bridge chief among them. Congestion at these posts is a daily operational reality for logistics providers, importers, exporters and commuting workers.

If a one-stop arrangement is concluded between South Africa and Lesotho, businesses can expect:

• Faster clearance times for commercial cargo, with a single combined inspection and processing point replacing duplicated stops;
• New compliance touchpoints, as officials of both states operate side by side in a common control zone, meaning conduct at the border may engage the laws of both countries simultaneously;
• Jurisdictional questions for any incident occurring within the common control zone, which will turn on precisely where the conduct occurred and which state’s officials are involved; and
• Contractual implications for cross-border supply, transport and logistics agreements, where delivery terms, risk allocation and delay provisions are often drafted around the assumptions of the current two-stop system.

This development also lands alongside SARS’ recent tightening of traveller processing, since 1 June 2026, all drivers entering South Africa with vehicles for temporary importation, including SACU-registered vehicles, must declare them at the port of entry. Together, these measures signal a broader modernisation of South Africa’s land borders: more streamlined, but also more closely monitored.

Our view

The Bill is a welcome and overdue piece of trade facilitation. Its success, however, will depend less on the statute itself than on the bilateral agreements concluded under it, the physical and systems infrastructure at each post, and the operational co-ordination between border agencies of both states. Businesses with cross-border operations should begin considering now how a common control zone model would affect their logistics chains, compliance procedures and standard contract terms.

As a firm practising in both South Africa and Lesotho, with offices in Bloemfontein and Maseru, we are uniquely positioned to advise on both sides of the border that this Bill will reshape. We will continue to monitor the Bill’s passage through the NCOP and will report on the final Act and any South Africa Lesotho implementation agreement as developments unfold.

For advice on cross-border trade, customs compliance or the structuring of cross-border commercial agreements, contact us at info@mayet.law, (051) 492 5668 (South Africa) or 22312101 (Lesotho).

This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Specific advice should be obtained before acting on any of the matters discussed.