Deputy Speaker, the Department of Defence and Military Veterans has a constitutional responsibility over the land and sea borders in order to ensure the integrity of the country. In view of the magnitude of this responsibility, we have decided to break this down into phases. We started this in April 2010. We expect that our land borderline will have been covered entirely by the end of 2014.
Our assessment of deployment is carried out on a regular basis. We also get regular feedback from relevant communities and stakeholders. In our phased approach we prioritised the Mozambique borderline for the reason that this is the most porous and because of the threat that is posed, especially to the endangered species, the rhino.
I wanted to take this opportunity to indicate part of our successes with this message, which I received last night from Minister Edna Molewa, one of our stakeholders, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs. She sent me an SMS saying, "Dear Comrade Lindi. Good evening. I have been suspecting that we have an inside job in this rhino poaching matter. My suspicion has been proved true. I wish to thank you and the special task force that is deployed in the Kruger National Park, over and above the border patrol team that you have. Our appreciation is done and due today because we have arrested five of our employees for killing two rhinos and stealing their horns." [Applause.]
I would like to add that appropriate action has been taken by the Minister internally, as well as the fact that this matter has been given over to the police. These are some of the responsibilities and successes that we have scored from being at the borders. We have recovered livestock, the total number of which is 1 435, which is a real relief for those farming communities along our borders.
In the past 18 months we recovered 76 stolen vehicles. I am certain that this has brought down the level of hijacking because we have closed off the route from which these cars were driven through to our bordering regions. We have confiscated contraband goods to the value of R81 million. We have arrested 35 000 illegal immigrants. Out of those, we have redirected the genuine refugees to declare themselves at the proper border posts.
In areas where the SA National Defence Force is deployed, the soldiers are helping the local communities with building and renovating of their infrastructures, churches, schools, etc. In looking over and assessing the impact that we have had, I am very satisfied that the decision we took to go back to the borders was a very good one. I thank you. [Applause.]