On Monday, a new payment system will be launched in SA - what you need to know

News24 | 13 March 2023

On Monday, a new payment system will be launched – which could finally help wean South Africans off cash.

Payshap – which is backed by the SA Reserve Bank and local banks - will allow South Africans to transfer money instantly between their phones, without a bank account.

You will be able to send money using vouchers and PIN codes, and recipients won't have to cash out that money first to perform another transaction. Payshap will allow them to make payments from their new balance to other people, and soon also via apps like WhatsApp.

The payments will focus on smaller transactions, and will be cheaper than current instant money transfers between banks. The Reserve Bank hopes it will eventually replace cash.

A similar payment system, also backed by a central bank, exploded in Brazil after its launch in 2020, with more than two-thirds of adults now using it.

Payshap was designed by BankservAfrica, an automated clearing house which is owned by the banks. For now, only the "big four" banks will offer Payshap wallets. Others will plug into the system later.

The service will be rolled out in two stages. The first stage will see the launch of the instant interbank clearing feature, allowing people to make payments to bank accounts or cellphone numbers.

The second stage will introduce a request-to-pay function which makes it possible for a person to request payment and receive it immediately in their bank account.

How much will it cost?

Banks will announce their pricing structure for Payshap after the launch, but it is expected to be much cheaper than immediate interbank payments. Absa used to charge R60 for immediate interbank transfers before reducing it to R10 in 2021. But it still charges R49 for immediate transfers above R1 000. Standard Bank and Nedbank charge R50 and R49, respectively, for immediate transfers above R2 000, and FNB has a flat rate of R45 on many of its accounts.

Vaughan Alexander, the chief technology officer at iKhokha owner adumo, said that in other markets, the rapid payment programmes have displaced 20% of cash transactions, on average.

"The reality is that right now, around 25% of the population, when they get money in their bank accounts, they actually withdraw it all. There are still many places where you just need to pay by cash," said Alexander.

BankServAfrica anticipates that by the end of this year, Payshap will be SA's most preferred electronic payment option. It could be one solution that's powerful enough to displace cash, as it estimates that nine out of 10 transactions in the country are still made in cash.

Rwanda and Uganda took in more than 10 000 refugees from DRC so far this year, UNHCR says

News24 | 13 March 2023

At least 10 000 people have fled to Rwanda and Uganda from the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as fighting between the M23 rebels and the government's Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) aggravates the humanitarian crisis in the region.

This was despite a ceasefire facilitated by the Angolan President João Lourenço entered on Tuesday by the two warring parties.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday in Geneva, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said since January, Rwanda and Uganda have seen an increase in refugees from the DRC.

"More than 5 500 people have crossed the border into neighbouring Rwanda since January, and a further 5 300 into Uganda as insecurity and violence continue to ravage the border regions," he said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame stands accused of working with the M23 rebels.

On countless occasions, he has denied being involved with them. Instead, he blamed his DRC counterpart Felix Tshisekedi for failing to guarantee security ahead of elections due on 20 December in the DRC.

In retaliation, in January Kagame threatened to deport refugees from the DRC while armed forces from both countries were involved in numerous gunfire exchanges as Kagame claimed provocation.

The crisis in eastern DRC represents the largest internal displacement crisis in Africa. There are about 5.8 million internally displaced people (IDPs), and aid agencies don't have enough resources to assist most of those affected. 

"For 2023, UNHCR is asking for US$232.6 million (about R4.2 billion) to assist internally displaced people and refugees in the DRC. As of today, the DRC operation is only 8% funded," said Saltmarsh.

With mounting numbers of the displaced their needs are "multiplying as already dire conditions deteriorate and resources in overcrowded locations buckle under the strain of new arrivals," added Saltmarsh.

Depending on circumstances, in some areas, UNHCR officials have been "positioned to provide psychosocial counselling and community support to manage the traumas that displaced people are experiencing".

In the weeks leading up to the peace deal, fighting had surged in the Kitchanga region in Masisi, near the strategic town of Sake in North Kivu, leading to record displacement in a week.

Saltmarsh added:

Women and children are the most affected and were left with no choice but to sleep out in the open.

"Civilians continue to pay the heavy and bloody price of conflict, including women and children who barely escaped the violence and are now sleeping out in the open air in spontaneous or organised sites, exhausted and traumatised," he added.

Since last year, the UNHCR said close to a million people have been displaced.

There are also reports of rape, extortion, kidnappings, and arbitrary killings recorded by the UNHCR. 

Faith in Canadian visitor visa system thin as twice-rejected South African orphan launches federal challenge

CBC News | 10 Mar 2023 

Swamped visitor visa process under fire from B.C. family of nine-year-old girl and prime minister

Lisa Pyne-Mercier and her great-niece, Ryleigh Ridland. Pyne-Mercier has spent the last two years fighting legal red tape to have Ridland, whose mother died in South Africa in 2021, come live at her B.C. home. (Submitted by Lisa Pyne-Mercier)

After a two-year fight to bring her to Canada, the family of a nine-year-old South African orphan is asking the federal court for a judicial review of her visitor visa application that was rejected last October. They want that rejection overturned to open the door to bring her to her new home.

Ryleigh Ridland is caught in a snarl of red tape and her family fears that her two-year bid to get into the country will now get lost in an unprecedented surge of temporary visitor applications — as world events send more people racing to apply for temporary access to Canada. The backlog of applications spiked to well over 1.2-million in early March, according to data from the ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Ridland's great aunt, Lisa Pyne-Mercier, has been fighting to bring the girl to Canada ever since January 2021, when Ridland, then just seven years old, was found alone days after her mother died unexpectedly on their remote South African farm property. Ridland's father relinquished his parental rights in a recent affidavit and South African courts named Pyne-Mercier the girl's legal guardian, but she says she is still facing frustrating delays. 

Ridland's temporary visitor application was rejected on Oct. 17, 2022, and a bid for a study visa was rejected on Nov. 3, 2022. Then an application for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was refused on Jan. 4.

Ridland is currently living with a foster family in South Africa. Pyne-Mercier has visited her there and the two often communicate via video chat.

Michael Battista, Ridland's new Toronto-based lawyer, hopes to argue in federal court that the immigration officer with IRCC who deemed her ineligible for a temporary visitor visa made an error. 

He filed an appeal with the federal court on Feb. 22 requesting a judicial review of her rejected temporary visa application on the grounds that the initial denial failed to consider "relevant evidence."

He said the application was rejected because immigration authorities suspected Ridland would stay illegally, beyond the usual allowed time of six months. 

The lawyer, who is also a professor at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, has written about what he sees as the need to stop tying visitor eligibility to suspicions that people may overstay their welcomes.

Ridland is shown here in South Africa, where she is staying with a foster family. Her Canadian relatives are asking the federal court for a judicial review of her visitor visa application that was rejected last October. (Submitted by Lisa Pyne-Mercier)

"It's infuriating. It's torture," said Pyne-Mercier, who has spent thousands of dollars and worked for years to try to have Ridland come to live at her Shawnigan Lake, B.C., home while she applied for permanent residency. 

She says she's worried that waves of new applications driven by ongoing international emergencies will bury her great niece's bid and leave the girl separated from relatives even longer than she has been.

Ridland's visa application rejection is just one among thousands filed to a strained, backlogged system that's come under attack from applicants, MPs and even the prime minister himself.

Trudeau signalled need for softer approach

In February, Justin Trudeau said he is pushing the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to soften its approach to processing visa applications to put less focus on the risk of visitors overstaying short-term visas.

"We're also trying to do a better job around temporary visas," Trudeau said in remarks during an hour-long meeting with 25 Algonquin College Nursing students on Feb. 10 in Ottawa.

"The system — I'll be honest — is still based around, 'Prove to me that you won't stay if you come,' right?" he said, arguing that it is easier for applicants to "convince" immigration officials to grant them visas if they have "a good job and a home and a house and a good status back home."

During a question and answer session with the prime minister, several international students mentioned having visa issues. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes the hand of a nursing student at Algonquin College in Ottawa on Feb. 10. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

One student described feeling isolated during a long hospital stay during which she said her mother tried twice to get a visa to visit, but was rejected.

"It would seem unfair to Canadians and to all sorts of people if there was a back door, but I absolutely hear you. Your mom should have been able to come and see you," Trudeau said.

Trudeau and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser declined interview requests about Ridland's case.

World events overburdening system

Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz, chair of the Liberal immigration caucus, says applications to visit Canada that don't involve an immediate threat to life are probably not the top priority at this time.

She's one of a group of Liberal MPs who welcomed Trudeau's recent call to change the slow, restrictive system that she says is under pressure due to the war in Ukraine, the situation in Afghanistan and an ongoing crisis in Turkey and northern Syria following two massive earthquakes last month that killed tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands more displaced. 

Last March, Canada launched a fast-track option for Ukrainians fleeing the war. Dzerowicz says it's "right" for Canada to prioritize such cases.

A woman carries her child as they flee a residential building hit by a Russian rocket in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 30. A group of Liberal MPs say they welcome Trudeau's recent call to change the slow, restrictive immigration system that is under significant pressure due to world events, including the war in Ukraine. (Andrii Marienko/The Associated Press)

"When someone's in imminent danger, I have seen our government move mountains," she said. 

The pressure to speed the process has the immigration ministry considering unusual options.  

In January, the Globe and Mail reported a leaked draft policy memo that appeared to suggest that the ministry was considering relaxing eligibility requirements to help deal with a backlog of more than 700,000 applications as of December 2022.

As of March 3, that backlog had grown to 1.2 million applications for temporary residence, according to IRCC data provided by the ministry. They include applications for study and work permits and visitor and temporary resident visas. 

Of the 3.5-million temporary residence applications received in 2022, IRCC data shows a total of 2.1 million were approved.

Fraser's press secretary Bahoz Dara Aziz said in an email that "enormous" progress has been made on the backlog with more than 500,000 applications processed in recent months. She said the ministry has hired 1,250 new staffers and is working to digitize the application process.

B.C. woman fights to bring orphaned niece to Canada

A Canadian is fighting to bring her nine-year-old great-niece to Canada, after being named the child's legal guardian when her mother died. But she says the girl is being left in limbo because of Canadian immigration rules.

That is small comfort for Pyne-Mercier, who just wants to be reunited with Ryleigh. 

"They are separating us as a family. This is a little girl. She doesn't have anyone or anything," said Pyne-Mercier, noting that it doesn't seem right that a nine-year-old with no other family would have such a hard time coming to Canada. "That's unfair." 

www.samigration.com

Zimbabwean gov't to begin identifying locals needing help to relocate from South Africa

CGTN |  Xinhua News Agency | 09 March 2023

The Zimbabwean government will begin a 20-day physical mapping exercise on March 12 to identify locals who wish to be helped in relocating from neighboring South Africa before their special work permits expire on June 30.

About 180,000 holders of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP), which allowed them to work in South Africa under a special dispensation, will have to return home at the expiry of the permits unless they acquire special skills visas that qualify them to stay on.

These are part of an estimated 800,000 Zimbabweans staying in South Africa, most of them illegally and surviving on menial jobs where they are often taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers.

A public notice, issued on Monday by Zimbabwean Ambassador to South Africa David Hamadziripi, said the government would help repatriate its nationals who wanted to voluntarily leave the country, as had been previously announced.

"The Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe in South Africa wishes to recall its announcement on 2 February, 2023, that the Government of Zimbabwe has taken a decision to assist and facilitate the repatriation of its nationals, holders of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permits, who voluntarily wish to return home before the expiry of their permits on 30 June, 2023," the notice said.

"In that regard, an in-person/physical mapping exercise will be undertaken across all the provinces of South Africa from 12 to 31 March, 2023, to identify and register ZEP holders and their dependents who may require assistance or facilitation to return to Zimbabwe," the notice said, giving locations where the exercise would be done.

Initially, the permits were to expire on Dec. 31, 2022, but the South African government extended them to the end of June to allow holders to apply for mainstream work permits.

However, there have been reports that the number of applicants has remained low because the Zimbabweans are not sure that they can convince the authorities to keep them in the country.

One of the affected Zimbabweans said he would definitely be returning home in June because he did not possess a special skill that would qualify him for a work visa.

"Also, employers must show proof that they are paying you a salary that is in line with the standard one, for example, for a teacher. To avoid this, companies have to apply for waivers for employees. It is a complicated process," said the Zimbabwean who declined to be named.

Zimbabweans and other foreigners have often come under attack from xenophobic South Africans who allege that they are stealing their jobs.

www.samigration.com

LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers in South Africa: major new study identifies a diverse, wide-spread community

African Security | Published: March 5

Authors:

John Marnell.  Doctoral Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand

B. Camminga. Research associate, University of the Witwatersrand

Thea de Gruchy. Researcher, University of the Witwatersrand

Disclosure statement

This project was made possible through research funding from the Williams Institute Global LGBTI Small Grants Program, the Open Society University Network Engaged Research Fund and the Other Foundation. Thea de Gruchy receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Partners:

• University of the Witwatersrand
• University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA.

The Conversation is funded by the National Research Foundation, eight universities, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pretoria, and South Africa. It is hosted by the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Western Cape, the African Population and Health Research Centre and the Nigerian Academy of Science. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a Strategic Partner.

Since 1998, South Africa has recognized persecution based on gender and sexuality as legitimate grounds for asylum. This makes it the only African country to formally extend refugee protection to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI+) persons. However, as research shows, the promise of freedom contained in its Refugees Act is yet to materialise for LGBTI+ people. Scholars, activists and human rights bodies continue to document worrying trends in the asylum system. A recent analysis of refugee status denials involving LGBTI+ applicants identifies egregious misapplications of domestic and international law. Other studies suggest that homophobia, transphobia and corruption are common within the Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for managing immigration and asylum.

These barriers to protection make it difficult for LGBTI+ asylum seekers to regularize their legal status, access services or find jobs. This increases their vulnerability to discrimination, exploitation, poverty and homelessness.

Earlier studies show that LGBTI+ people who move to South Africa face unique challenges. But they do not say much about the size and constitution of this population or the degree to which certain social, legal and economic issues affect it. There are two reasons for this. First, research to date has been qualitative, small in scale and focused on particular cities or subgroups. Second, South Africa, like many refugee-hosting countries, does not release disaggregated data on grounds for asylum.

The absence of reliable quantitative data makes it difficult – if not impossible – to hold Home Affairs, the police and other state entities to account. When reports emerge of LGBTI+ migrants and asylum seekers being mistreated, the government can dismiss these incidents as isolated or anomalous.

To respond to this knowledge gap, we developed a survey tool that could be distributed using WhatsApp. This allowed us to collect data from people who might otherwise be unwilling or unable to participate in research. We sourced information from 381 respondents, making it the largest data set of its kind in South Africa.

Our data shows that South Africa hosts significant numbers of LGBTI+ migrants and asylum seekers – something long suspected but difficult to prove. It also shows that this population is more dispersed and diverse than previously thought. Where someone lives, how they identify and how long they have been in the country can affect their ability to apply for or renew documentation or to generate income. It can also increase their susceptibility to violence and harassment.

The search for more data

Our goal was to collect baseline data that could not only augment existing research but also guide and support future advocacy work. As well as capturing basic demographic information, the survey posed simple questions about respondents’ gender, sexuality, documentation status and reason for migrating.

We wanted the survey to reach as many people as possible so we partnered with three well-known activists: Thomars Shamuyarira, Masi Zhakata and Anold Mulaisho. Each coordinates a network of LGBTI+ migrants and asylum seekers in a different part of the country. The community fieldworkers shared information about the project and enrolled anyone who wanted to take part.

We opened the survey to all LGBTI+ people who have crossed an international border, regardless of their documentation status. We did this because the distinction between migrants and asylum seekers is blurred in South Africa. Failings in the asylum system push those who may be eligible for refugee protection into the migration system or force them to remain undocumented. Official legal categories can also differ from people’s experiences and self-identifications.

Old issues, new insights

The survey results provide further evidence that South Africa is failing to meet its legal obligations. It also offers surprising insights into respondents’ identities, locations, motivations and experiences. We limit our discussion here to five key findings:

Geographic spread

Our analysis shows that LGBTI+ migrants and asylum seekers are dispersed across the country far more widely than first thought. It is commonly believed that LGBTI+ people move to major economic hubs, such as Johannesburg and Cape Town, which are perceived to be more “gay friendly” than other locations. As a result, services targeting them are concentrated in these areas.

The number of survey respondents living outside metropolitan areas suggests a need to reconsider how resources and services are delivered.

Diversity of language

The survey responses show that LGBTI+ migrants and asylum seekers use a wide range of terms to describe their identities. Most remarkable was the use of terms commonly understood to indicate gender – such as “transgender” – to signal sexuality, and vice versa. Of equal interest was the widespread use of “non-binary”, a relatively new term in South Africa, and the limited use of “queer”, a much older term commonly used in advocacy circles.

This finding is of interest to researchers, activists, lawyers, service providers, state bureaucrats and other stakeholders who engage with this population.

Gender-based claims

South Africa extends protection from persecution based on both gender and sexuality. However, previous research indicates that transgender and gender-diverse people have had to claim asylum – or have been classified as claiming asylum – on the basis of sexual orientation.

Our data suggests a shift in this pattern. A number of respondents reported claims based on gender identity or expression. The long-term impacts of this remain to be seen, such as how these claims are treated by Home Affairs and whether they result in refugee status being conferred. It also raises questions about what kinds of advocacy are necessary to ensure these outcomes.

An inaccessible and confusing system

Most respondents reported being undocumented, an anticipated result given the barriers obstructing LGBTI+ people from claiming protection in South Africa. More interesting was the number of answers that seem to indicate confusion over asylum-related terms, categories, systems and processes. This tells us that programmes intended to inform and support LGBTI+ asylum seekers are not reaching all segments of this community.

There were many people who wanted to participate in the project but could not. Sometimes this was due to language issues, but mostly it was because they had a SIM card but no cellphone. This is concerning given how much advocacy and outreach work is delivered via digital channels.$

Where to from here?

A survey such as this cannot tell us everything, but it does provide crucial data on an under-researched and largely invisible population. Our hope is that state agencies use these findings to develop sensitisation programmes and improve service delivery. At the very least, this means treating LGBTI+ migrants and asylum seekers with dignity, respect and compassion, and upholding the rights guaranteed in law. Only then will the dream of freedom be realised for LGBTI+ people who move to South Africa.

www.samigration.com