Home affairs ramps up biometrics-driven movement system

IT Web | 10 May 2023

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is looking to increase coverage of its Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) across all ports of entry during the 2023/24 financial year.

This, up from the 34 ports of entry the system currently covers, revealed Thulani Mavuso, deputy director-general for institutional planning and support at the DHA.

The department today briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on progress in regards to the implementation of the system.

Mavuso said the BMCS deployment included the creation of user profiles, training of users and change management. Meanwhile, in other ports, the department had to upgrade the network capacity and backup power.

“We envisage 100% deployment of BMCS to 72 ports by 31 March 2024,” said Mavuso. “In the 2023/24 financial year, the system will be rolled out in the remaining 38 ports of entry.

“There are some ports where we are trying to install new infrastructure; for example, Mossel Bay and Port of Ngqura. In the other areas, we will be upgrading what we already have on the ground.”

He noted the department wants to finalise the upgrades in the first two quarters of the 2023/24 financial year.

The project was initiated to replace the enhanced Movement Control System (eMCS) by capturing the biometrics of travellers coming into the country, explained Mavuso.

It will replace the eMCS, which has reached its end of life. The eMCS was implemented just before the World Cup in 2010, with enhancements in 2013, he told MPs.

The BMCS aims to enable the capturing of fingerprint and facial biometric data for all travellers who enter and exit SA. It also serves to trace the movement of travellers in the country, aHome affairs ramps up biometrics-driven movement system

IT Web – 10 May 2023

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is looking to increase coverage of its Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) across all ports of entry during the 2023/24 financial year.

This, up from the 34 ports of entry the system currently covers, revealed Thulani Mavuso, deputy director-general for institutional planning and support at the DHA.

The department today briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on progress in regards to the implementation of the system.

Mavuso said the BMCS deployment included the creation of user profiles, training of users and change management. Meanwhile, in other ports, the department had to upgrade the network capacity and backup power.

“We envisage 100% deployment of BMCS to 72 ports by 31 March 2024,” said Mavuso. “In the 2023/24 financial year, the system will be rolled out in the remaining 38 ports of entry.

“There are some ports where we are trying to install new infrastructure; for example, Mossel Bay and Port of Ngqura. In the other areas, we will be upgrading what we already have on the ground.”

He noted the department wants to finalise the upgrades in the first two quarters of the 2023/24 financial year.

The project was initiated to replace the enhanced Movement Control System (eMCS) by capturing the biometrics of travellers coming into the country, explained Mavuso.

It will replace the eMCS, which has reached its end of life. The eMCS was implemented just before the World Cup in 2010, with enhancements in 2013, he told MPs.

The BMCS aims to enable the capturing of fingerprint and facial biometric data for all travellers who enter and exit SA. It also serves to trace the movement of travellers in the country, as well as identify both citizens and foreign nationals to improve national security.

According to the DHA, development of the system was completed in 2021. A pilot project was then implemented at the four airports: OR Tambo International Airport, Cape Town International Airport, King Shaka International Airport and Lanseria.

Commenting on some of the challenges the department has encountered with the implementation of BMCS, Mavuso listed inadequate networking bandwidth at some of the ports, especially in the previous (2022/23) financial year.

“We have had some delays with some of the ports that needed to be upgraded. For example, in Kosi Bay there were issues, so we ended up getting one of the telcos to help install connectivity there.”

He also noted the negative impact of load-shedding on the rollout of the project in some areas due to lack of backup power.

“We are working with the Border Management Authority and immigration services to ensure we install alternative power generation in all ports of entry.”

Other challenges include change management and insufficient capacity of staff at some of the ports, he concluded.

www.samigration.coms well as identify both citizens and foreign nationals to improve national security.

According to the DHA, development of the system was completed in 2021. A pilot project was then implemented at the four airports: OR Tambo International Airport, Cape Town International Airport, King Shaka International Airport and Lanseria.

Commenting on some of the challenges the department has encountered with the implementation of BMCS, Mavuso listed inadequate networking bandwidth at some of the ports, especially in the previous (2022/23) financial year.

“We have had some delays with some of the ports that needed to be upgraded. For example, in Kosi Bay there were issues, so we ended up getting one of the telcos to help install connectivity there.”

He also noted the negative impact of load-shedding on the rollout of the project in some areas due to lack of backup power.

“We are working with the Border Management Authority and immigration services to ensure we install alternative power generation in all ports of entry.”

Other challenges include change management and insufficient capacity of staff at some of the ports, he concluded.

www.samigration.com

Western Cape concerned about high rejection rate of e-visas

BL Premium | 05 May 2023

Over half of e-visa applications are rejected, because they were not processed in time

The poor performance of the department of home affairs in the issuance of e-visas is of great concern to Western Cape finance & economic opportunities minister Mireille Wenger, who says this hampers tourism recovery in the country.

She noted on Wednesday that according to a presentation made by the department in the National Council of Provinces, 58% (3,697) of failed e-visa applications totalling 6,329 were rejected because the date of travel had already passed.

“They simply weren’t got to in time,” Wenger said.

“This follows an earlier revelation by the same department that, at that time, only 48.7% of all e-visa applications received had been processed. It was further revealed that of those that had been processed, only 3.2% of the total received had been granted.”

Wenger said e-visas were intended to provide a convenient option for visitors to make their applications online, instead of having to visit an SA mission abroad. Fourteen countries are eligible for e-visa applications: Cameroon, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uganda.

‘Deeply concerning’

“It is deeply concerning that inefficiencies in our e-visa regime continue to add a barrier to our tourism recovery, and our drive to increase connectivity within the African continent and attract more African tourists to our destination. This should be fully enabled by our visa regime, and not restricted, as is currently the case,” Wenger said.

“While the recent commitments from President Cyril Ramaphosa to address the serious issues with the visa system are welcomed, words no longer count. Decisive action is required along with timelines to address the well-known challenges,” she said.

According to another statement, the department said in a presentation to the provincial standing committee on finance, economic opportunities & tourism on Wednesday that it would finalise implementation of the remote working visa next month, and that the state law adviser approval process was under way.

Decisive action is required along with timelines to address the well-known challenges.

Mireille Wenger, Western Cape finance and economic opportunities minister

A remote working visa was a no-brainer, DA Western Cape MPP and tourism spokesperson Cayla Murray said. “The Vulindlela report on visa reform ... [received only this week], despite already writing to the president in February, confirms as much, and recommends the implementation of a remote working visa with suitable requirements such as proof of employment, a minimum level of income, and health insurance.

“I am hopeful that home affairs will stick to its commitment, as this will help to boost job creation in our province. It must be noted, however, that such commitments from ANC-led national government departments often aren’t worth all that much,” Murray said.

The DA says it will make sure that this shortcut to economic growth is implemented as soon as possible, and will use every mechanism available to hold DHA to account should they not live up to their commitment.

In March the department granted relief to applicants for long-term visas or waivers who were awaiting the outcomes of their applications by extending the blanket concession to December 31. This was due to a backlog in processing waiver and visa applications by foreign nationals. The backlog, which runs into the tens of thousands and extends back to 2016, is due to a lack of personnel in the department and the lengthy procedures involved in processing an application.

The department said in March it only expected to clear the backlog in 15 months’ time.

The total backlog for permanent residence permits in the system amounted to 49,529, with 40,340 of those at end-May 2022 outstanding for more than eight months. Of these, 3,524 date back to 2016; 5,187 to 2017; 7,303 to 2018; 10,621 to 2019; 2,968 to 2020; three to 2021 (when the world was in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic) and 10,759 to 2022.

With regard to temporary residence permits, the backlog of applications totals 75,814, with 23,988 having been received within eight weeks by March 1.

www.samigration.com

Solutions to skills crisis evade only the government

Business Day | 05 May 2023

The inertia in the face of excellent offers of help is just baffling

SA has an unemployment crisis. It also has a skills crisis. This toxic combination is slowly poisoning the economy and raising the risk of a democracy-threatening social explosion. The proportion of South Africans with no hope for a better future and little to lose has probably already reached the tipping point.

All of the above is trite — hardly a day goes by without some or other political analyst or business leader warning that we are “on the precipice”. The solutions to the unemployment crisis are no secret either. But they demand political will, and that is evidently in short supply. It is also not a crisis that can be resolved in a hurry, even with all the will in the world.

At core, both SA’s jobless crisis and the shortage of appropriate skills to fill those positions that do exist are a result of a failure of the basic education and technical training system. That too will not be resolved overnight, even if the government were to tackle impediments such as the shortage of appropriate institutions and qualified teachers, excessive trade union influence and inadequate infrastructure.

But there is low-hanging fruit, and it is bewildering that a government faced with such an obvious existential crisis has been so slow to pluck it. Life Healthcare CEO Peter Wharton-Hood recently wrote an impassioned piece for publication in Business Day appealing to the government to allow the private healthcare sector to help it deal with the critical shortage of nurses in SA, which on the current trajectory is expected to reach as many as 100,000 by 2030 (“SA needs to invest in nurses to avoid a healthcare catastrophe”, April 12).

Private healthcare groups have both the facilities and the capacity to train several thousand new nurses each year, yet SA Nursing Council and Council on Higher Education regulations place strict limitations on their ability to do so, for no rational reason. Failing to deliver on your constitutional obligation to govern is bad enough, but deliberately preventing others from filling the void that is left by that failure is unforgivable.

The skills shortage in business at senior and middle management level, especially when it comes to technical qualifications and experience, has been exacerbated by emigration. It is sensible, therefore, to make it as easy as possible for firms to bring in scarce skills from abroad. Yet it remains exceedingly difficult for foreign work visa applicants to obtain certainty that they will be allowed to stay in SA.

The department of home affairs recently announced that holders of long-term visas that are due to expire, and those awaiting the outcome of their applications for work visas, now have an extension to end-December. But with a backlog that exceeds 75,000 applications, some dating as far back as 2016, few are holding their breath

There is a global talent shortage, particularly in areas such as IT, finance, engineering and health care. It makes no sense to simultaneously fail to address the “push” factors driving skilled South Africans overseas, and make it unreasonably difficult for those who have the skills we need, to live and work in this country.

www.samigration.com

South Africa one step closer to rolling out a remote working visa, says Home Affairs

Daily Maverick | 04 May 2023

The government is on track to roll out a remote working visa – but the Department of Home Affairs has not given a date for its full implementation.

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) says it will meet a June deadline to specify requirements for remote working visas. The department was briefing the Western Cape legislature on remote visas on Wednesday, 3 May. 

During the briefing, the department’s Nischal Jaynarayan said a “comprehensive” report on the review of the work visa system had recently been handed over to the Presidency by former DHA director-general Mavuso Msimang, who was tasked in 2022 by President Cyril Ramaphosa to review of the visa system. In his State of the Nation Address (Sona) in February 2022, the president said the review was “exploring the possibility of new visa categories that could enable economic growth, such as a start-up visa and a remote working visa”. In his Sona 2023 speech, the president said: “We will also be introducing a remote worker visa and a special dispensation for high-growth start-ups.”

 The remote working visa came under the spotlight during Wednesday’s meeting of the provincial Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism, which learnt that the DHA is in the process of completing an implementation plan for its introduction.

One of the recommendations of Msimang’s report – which fell under Operation Vulindlela, a massive project by the government to accelerate structural reform and support economic recovery – is the introduction of new visa categories to cater for remote workers and start-ups. 

Jaynarayan told the committee a new visa category such as a start-up visa or remote working visa could enable economic growth. 

On the DHA’s side, the changes would mean the DHA would have to specify visa requirements for remote workers – including the specific requirements for partners or children. The DHA also needed to specify visa eligibility for start-up founders and amend certain sections of the Immigration Act. The timeframe for the DHA to complete this would be three months. 

Jaynarayan said the new visa categories would be included in the revised immigration regulations to be published “by the end of June”, subject to State Law Adviser approval as well as public comment. 

When asked by committee member Isaac Sileku (DA) if the DHA would meet the three-month deadline, Jaynarayan said “we are still on target for now”. He said the target was not ambitious; if people worked “efficiently and quickly”, the target would be met. 

In response to a question by committee chairperson Cayla Murray about when and how people would be able to apply for the visa, Jaynarayan said the department would announce when applications would be opened as “we move through the legislative process”.

www.samigration.com

Our lives are on the verge of ruin, say Zim Exemption Permit holders as termination draws near

Daily Maverick | 04 May 2023

The permits, which grant temporary legal status to Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa, will be terminated on 30 June. There are about 178,000 holders of the permits.

With less than two months before the South African government terminates the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits, gloom and despair have set in for the permit holders and their families.

In January 2022, the Cabinet decided that the ZEP arrangement had to be terminated by 31 December 2022, and applicants should apply for other visa regimes for which they qualify, or for a waiver of certain requirements of the visas they apply for to retain their legal status in South Africa.

On 2 September 2022, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi issued a directive extending the ZEPs for an additional six months, until 30 June 2023. The termination of the permits does not affect Zimbabweans who hold Refugee, Asylum Seeker, Spousal, Critical Skills or Business visas or permits.

A review application by the Helen Suzman Foundation and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, seeking to have the decision to refuse further extensions of the ZEPs declared unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid, is before the high court.

The ZEP grants temporary legal status to Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa. There are about 178,000 permit holders. 

‘Humiliation’

ZEP holders say their lives and the lives of their families are on the verge of ruin.  

“I have been in South Africa since 2008. The only thing I know about Zimbabwe is that people are really suffering back home. The Zimbabwean government is doing nothing to help us, not to mention helping the masses back home,” said ZEP holder Christopher Pagiwa. 

“We are also suffering humiliation at work, our South African colleagues always remind us that we are no longer wanted in South Africa.”

Pagiwa said he would be happy if the South African government offered an additional extension of the permit while the two governments negotiated. 

ZEP holder Virimayi Brettenel Moya said, “Even when I am stopped by the police, they always remind me that my ZEP permit will not be of any effect beyond June 2023.

“Life is tough, there are no jobs, and the volatile political situation in our country is unbearable. That is why South Africa has seen an influx of Zimbabwean nationals over the past decade.”

Many Zimbabwean nationals, including Moya, who applied for a waiver said they were still waiting.

“I applied for the waiver in February last year, but I am still awaiting a date,” Moya said.

Dysfunctionality at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has led to poor service delivery. In an effort to address this, the department has embarked on a digitisation programme.

“At school they want our kids to have study permits. We keep getting calls about when we will be updating our children’s documents,” Moya said.

He arrived in South Africa in 2005 and his firstborn child, who is now 14, has lived here his whole life.

“My child will have a big challenge adapting to the language in Zimbabwe and that might affect their studies,” Moya said.

Menial jobs

Bongani Mkhwanazi, a spokesperson for the Zimbabwean community in South Africa, told Daily Maverick that most ZEP holders were people with low skills, employed as domestic workers or in other menial jobs which were not available in Zimbabwe. 

“Also, the economic state of Zimbabwe is very worrying to permit holders because even if it were to improve, they would find themselves unable to acclimatize to it,” Mkhwanazi said.

He said ZEP holders had approached his office seeking its intervention as the DHA had said they were economic migrants and did not qualify to seek refuge by claiming persecution in their country of origin. 

“There are actually more undocumented people because of these permits’ nullification.”

Mkhwanazi said most complaints from the ZEP holders related to the termination of their employment, bank account closures, street arrests and/or extortion by police for failure to produce valid documents. 

“It must be noted that some, if not many people merely use these permits to be able to purchase goods in South Africa for resale in Zimbabwe,” Mkhwanazi said. 

The Zimbabwe government has announced its intention to assist with the repatriation of Zimbabweans who are willing to return home but, said Mkhwanazi, “In practice, we do not know what the Zimbabwean government will actually assist with. We had beseeched them to deal with customs duty issues and placement of children who are studying here.”

“I can describe my situation as one of high stress levels, anxiety and a feeling of desperation,” ZEP holder Bright Moyo told Daily Maverick.

“The Zimbabwe government has said they are working on receiving all ZEP holders returning home. As a ZEP holder myself, I have not received any documentation pertaining to such from our government,” Moyo said.

“I have stayed in SA since 2000 and would have loved to see a more feasible and realistic approach rather than just political rhetoric. I am a 53-year-old father approaching retirement and emotionally fragile when it comes to these issues, which directly affect my children.”

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