Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says surveillance drones, speedboats and hand-held biometric devices have been ordered to help manage the country`s porous borders.

South Africa`s land borders cover about 4,700km. Insufficient security and the poor state of fencing make the borders insecure, with foreigners entering illegally and allowing other acts of criminality.Speaking on SABC on Sunday, Motsoaledi said they have employed technology to deal with undocumented foreigners and crime syndicates at borders. “We have ordered 18 drones to be used at the borders, four speedboats and 500 hand-held gadgets that can identify you by your fingerprint,” he said. He was responding to ActionSA`s Funzi Ngobeni on empowering the Border Management Authority.

The question of South Africa`s unprotected borders has been topical for years, with some South Africans losing patience with the government`s slow progress and blaming undocumented foreigners for illegality and “taking jobs”  but the police minister has said foreigners are not the primary source of crime.

Leading up to the May 29 national and provincial elections, political parties have shared their stances on the issue. The EFF wants a borderless Africa and a South Africa with no provinces. Gayton Mackenzie of the PA says “let’s fix our country first before we worry about other countries” and wants the mass deportation of foreigners. The DA has said borders must be secured and illegal immigration stopped.

In 2019, two months before national and provincial elections, then defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said they would use drones and rely more on technology at borders to tackle the influx of undocumented immigrants.

A lack of critical skills is holding back the South African economy but the problem is not being solved fast enough.
The private sector is willing to help government with the visa backlog to ensure that people with critical skills can start working in the country to help grow the economy.
Busi Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), says in her weekly newsletter the Department of Home Affairs has a backlog of 74 000 applications for all kinds of visas according to an official quoted by Bloomberg last month.
Many of those are in the scarce skills category and the backlog exists despite concerted efforts by government led by the Operation Vulindlela programme to drive implementation of policy that will substantially improve access to scarce skills visas.
Mavuso says the backlog is staggering, a number in line with the headcount of some of South Africa’s biggest companies. She points out that if those skilled workers suddenly started working in our economy, the impact would be significant.
“The fact that companies cannot fill the positions means they cannot invest and expand. Expansion would enable much further employment, more tax generated and the overall business environment greatly improved.”
One additional job for every critical skill post filled
She says the presidency has estimated that one additional job is created for every skilled position filled. Although companies told Mavuso anecdotally that Home Affairs’ service improved, the backlog remains a problem.
“I highlighted what poor visa policy does to business in the past and the good work that has been done under Operation Vulindlela to overhaul the policy. The presidency has said access to visas is the second biggest constraint on the economy after load shedding.”
The new policies include the introduction of a trusted employer scheme that will allow certain companies to fast-track applications. Home Affairs said in April that it would have the scheme in place within three months.
Mavuso says there has certainly been progress, with application forms published in October. “However, to date no company benefits from the scheme yet and there does not appear to be a clear timeline for when they will.”
Home Affairs also missed deadlines for other visa reforms, including remote working visas to enable so-called “digital nomads” to work from South Africa and visas for founders of start-ups who choose to launch their companies in South Africa, she says.
‘Not all changes are so difficult’
“I appreciate that some policy reforms can be challenging, requiring legislative amendments and changes to regulations in multiple domains. But not all are so difficult. Regulations for remote workers, for example, can be changed simply by revising the immigration regulations, a relatively straightforward process.”
However, she warns, even when improved policy outcomes are delivered, the backlog will still be a problem.
“It appears to be fundamentally administrative, as Home Affairs simply does not have the capacity to process the applications.”
Mavuso says that needs a long-term fix that must be made by the department, with appropriate resourcing to manage the load, but there is clearly a need for a short-term stopgap to get on top of long-outstanding applications.
Business could help, she says. ”The private sector has extensive administrative capacity that could be drawn on to process the backlog. While the procedures to do so would have to be determined and staff capacity will have to be built through some training, the backlog could be resolved in a matter of months.”
The right technology could also be brought in to improve processing, given that Home Affairs computers work at roughly one sixtieth the speed of those in most banks. In much the way that business assisted government with technical skills to resolve infrastructure breakdowns ranging from sewerage treatment plants through to electricity stations, the visas backlog could be tackled through a partnership between business and government. It is certainly a possibility worth exploring, she says.
Clear incentive for private sector to find solution
“Business has a clear incentive to find a solution. The inability to bring in foreign skills risks pushing many companies out of South Africa entirely. We have long marketed ourselves as a “gateway to Africa”, attracting companies to set up their regional headquarters here.
“Yet many companies that did that now encounter extreme frustration bringing in the skills they need to operate. They would have no such problem had they opted instead to set up in Dubai or Mauritius. Operation Vulindlela says that applications for similar visas in Kenya take three months while in Nigeria it is two.”
In addition, analysis by Operation Vulindlela suggests that about 900 000 South Africans emigrated in 2020. Many of them were skilled and therefore freeing up the ability to attract foreign skills is very important to support the economy.
Mavuso says the backlog represents applications made through an arduous process that includes police clearance certificates from every country that applicants previously worked in. About half of the applications Home Affairs does process are rejected. Countless more are never made in the first place because potential applicants are discouraged by the bureaucracy.
“Unsurprisingly, given the delays and difficulty in making an application, the numbers have been declining, with about 3 000 scarce skills applications in 2021 compared to 7 000 in 2017. The policy overhaul proposed by Operation Vulindlela must be delivered urgently.”
Mavuso says the visa chaos is a clear example of good policy thinking failing to be implemented. “Business is willing to work with government to get to the outcomes that would leave everyone better off.”

International Tourism Association’s Fred Duma said the visa backlog was now sitting at more than 95 000 applications. Tourist arrivals in South Africa hit a positive trend, with improvements in the number of visitors spanning 2021 to 2023 - despite the department of home affairs chasing away visitors who have not received visa renewals by 23 February. In a directive issued by home affairs on 21 December, tourists were advised to leave the country by the end of this month, despite admitting a backlog and long turnaround time for visas. International Tourism Association’s Fred Duma said the backlog was now sitting at more than 95 000 applications, “which clearly means no-one will get their visa by the time the minister Aaron Motsoaledi has set”. Duma said this seemed like a deliberate sabotage from the department, “because you have already granted this person a visa and because of your own doing you cannot extend it, despite the promising figures from Stats SA”. “Stats SA clearly indicated an increase in visitors since Covid. At just more than eight million tourists last year, there was a notable improvement, where the total tourist arrivals were 17.1% below the pre-pandemic levels, moving from 10.2 million in 2019 to 8.4million in 2023,” he said. Stats SA noted “the December 2023 number (862 460) remains 41.8% lower than the pre-pandemic figure (1.4 million) recorded in 2019”. “Other African countries have shown a notable recovery by exceeding the pre-pandemic levels by 11.9%, from 38 501 tourists in 2019 to 43 093 tourists in 2023. “There is, however, a possibility for a complete recovery for the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and overseas region, as overseas tourist arrivals have reached 78.5% of 2019’s levels and Sadc has reached 90.2%,” Stats SA said. Southern Africa Tourism Services Association chair Oupa Pilane said home affairs’ irrational decree showed complete disregard for the tourism industry and “will be ruinous at a time when the country desperately needs visitors’ foreign capital”. “South Africa grants short-term visas on arrival to tourists from many countries. But due to astounding levels of ineptitude and incompetence, home affairs regularly fails to process the simple visa extensions in a reasonable time,” he said. “The much-needed ‘swallows’ who visit for up to 180 days are a golden goose for South Africa’s economy and, indeed, its tourism sector, which is the third-highest GDP earner for the country and enjoys a deep and vast supply chain creating job opportunities.” Pilane said it was shameful that home affairs could not execute its simple mandate in issuing visas on time, and “then thinks nothing of imposing arbitrary edicts to eject visitors who planned six-month stays and, in many cases, own property here”. “Tourism is trumpeted as a priority by government, yet this renegade department -and others like the department of transport - appear to be doing their utmost to shackle this critical sector, either with deliberate intent or through staggering ineptitude,” he said. “It is disgraceful to penalise visitors for their inexcusable dysfunction.” The DA shadow minister of home affairs Angel Khanyile said tourists, when entering South Africa, could be issued with a 90-day visa and, subsequently, apply for a 90- day extension if they wish to stay longer. “The country stands to lose millions in lost revenue by not allowing them to extend their visas during the busiest season,” Khanyile said. “The solution to the backlog for the department is simply to avoid dealing with it and remove the responsibility to process extensions.” “The DA has written to the minister of home affairs to request that he issue a new directive which will provide tourist who are in our country on a 90 day visa, awaiting the outcome of their extension, to be granted the right to remain until such a time that the backlog is resolved, or on the basis of their date of departure - depending on which comes first,” she said.

In the past, prior to the amendments to the Immigration Act, it was possible for an illegal foreigner to “legalise” or “regularise” him/herself from within South Africa by making payment of the requisite fine. This is no longer the case and we are constantly encountering foreigners who find themselves illegally in South Africa with little hope of rectifying their situation.
The current dilemma
In many cases, these illegal foreigners elect to depart South Africa and contest any ban issued to them from outside of the country. This involves the submission of an overstay appeal to the Department of Home Affairs (“DHA”). A number of foreigners, however, simply have too much invested in South Africa and are unwilling to depart the country for fear of incurring a ban that may or may not be overturned.
What your options are
Where an illegal foreigner wishes to “legalise” him/herself from within South Africa, he/she must meet certain criteria in order to do so. For the sake of clarity, “legalising” a foreigner entails applying to DHA for authorisation for the foreigner to remain in South Africa whilst submitting a visa application and awaiting the subsequent outcome. The “legalisation” does not provide the foreigner with the rights attributed to the holder of a specific visa until such visa has actually been issued to the foreigner.
How to get started
In order to qualify for “legalisation”, an illegal foreigner must satisfy DHA that: he/she was unable to submit a visa application timeously for reasons beyond his/her control and; that he/she is now in a position to do so. The latter requirement will be met by providing DHA with proof of a completed visa application containing all the requisite documents. The former requirement, however, is slightly more problematic.
The question of what the phrase “for reasons beyond his/her control” refers to is not clearly answered in the Immigration Act, but it is generally accepted that these reasons include medical grounds and errors on the part of DHA. For example, where an Applicant has applied for a visa timeously, but DHA have subsequently lost the application and the foreigner’s visa has expired in the interim. All of this information will need to be provided to DHA in the form of written representations called an authorisation application. Such applications are commonly referred to as “good cause applications” by DHA officials.
Authorisation applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis and there is a degree of discretion applied by DHA in considering whether additional factors should be taken into consideration. A prominent factor taken into consideration will be whether the foreigner in question is married to a South Africa citizen or has South African children.
A Successful application
If such an application is successful, the foreigner will be provided with a Form 20 (also known as a letter of good cause) which authorises the foreigner to submit a visa application by a prescribed date. This authorisation lapses as soon as an outcome is received in the visa application. If the outcome is negative, the foreigner will need to depart South Africa immediately.
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By its own admission, the department loses most of its court cases - the costs of which are borne by the taxpayer.

Dzmitry Dzenisiuk was deployed to SA in 2014, with his wife joining him under a spousal visa. Both applied for visa extensions in February 2021. Image: Moneyweb
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has been blocked by the Pretoria High Court from deporting a foreign worker and his wife, both of whom had been refused visa extensions, based on its failure to properly consider the documents supplied in their visa applications.
This is the latest in a string of court losses notched up by Home Affairs.
In the latest ruling, the high court ruled that the decision not to renew the visa of two foreign nationals must be set aside and returned to Home Affairs for reconsideration.
Dzmitry Dzenisiuk was deployed by Czech company IBA to SA in 2014 by way of an inter-company transfer visa. His wife accompanied him under a spousal visa. Both applied for visa extensions in February 2021.
In May 2021, Home Affairs rejected Dzenisiuk’s application for renewal of his Critical Skills Working Visa on the grounds that there was no proof the employer was registered in SA.
That was clearly in error, as the company registration number was reflected on the visa application forms.
When Dzenisiuk appealed the decision, Home Affairs came back with a different objection, that “according to the company registration provided by you, you are the only listed director, and you are applying as a managing director”.
“The shifting of the goalpost is apparent from the response to the initial appeal,” noted Acting Judge Reinhard Groenewald.
DHA displays dogged determination
Dzenisiuk made a further appeal, providing evidence that he is one of two directors in the company but is not a shareholder.
Undeterred, Home Affairs fired back, accusing him of misrepresentation and stating that he was in fact the owner of IBA and had contravened the Immigration Act.
This, too, was wrong and the DHA’s “failure to properly consider the relevant facts” ultimately led it to “the wrong conclusions,” reads the judgment.
The decision by Home Affairs that either IBA or Dzenisiuk [the applicants] had contravened the Immigration Act would likely have a bearing on any future visa applications by Dzenisiuk.
The applicants argued that no distinction was made between the legal personality of the company and its shareholders, and also ignored the difference between a director and a shareholder.
“Considering the facts of the matter, including the shifting of goal posts by [Home Affairs], as well as the apparent failure to fully consider both relevant circumstances and the apparent oversight in respect of the correct status of [Dzenisiuk’s] employer, it follows that the decisions must be reviewed and set aside,” says the judgment.
The visa applications were ordered back to Home Affairs for reconsideration, and Dzenisiuk and IBA were given 10 days to supplement the applications with any documents deemed appropriate.
No deportation would be allowed until the applications were finalised.
‘Radical overhaul’ of the migration system
In November last year, Home Affairs published a white paper proposing a radical overhaul of citizenship, immigration and refugee protection.
The paper laments the stream of negative press against the department and concedes that it has been defeated in most court cases and slapped with court orders of which it has not been aware.
“This must change as the fiscus cannot afford more,” says the paper, which was widely condemned by human rights group for its proposal to limit the rights of migrants.
Despite its admitted lack of success in the courts, Home Affairs seems determined to plough on with a litigation strategy that has not been in its favour.
Home Affairs also headed for ConCourt
The DHA is headed to the Constitutional Court to appeal another ruling against it for terminating the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) system, which the Pretoria High Court found to be unlawful and unconstitutional.
The DHA and Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s appeal against that ruling had already been dismissed by both the high court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, in part because there was no consultation with the 178 000 permit holders likely to be affected and the department’s decision did not follow proper procedures. The last avenue of appeal for Home Affairs is the ConCourt.
The ZEP Holders Association, representing many thousands of ZEP holders, argues that government’s new-found zeal for targeting immigrants is an ANC pre-election ploy aimed at appealing to xenophobic elements within the country. This is denied by Home Affairs.