ANC ‘green lights’ Motsoaledi’s proposed policy on SA’s immigration system

Motsoaledi has been praised in some quarters for his interventions, which are running ahead of the ANC’s policy formulation.

1 August 2022 – The Citizen

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi’s mission to have a clear migration policy framework for the country could be realised as the ANC admits it has none since 1994 and is amenable to his proposed migration blue print.

Giving feedback on the national policy conference discussion on migration, ANC peace and security subcommittee chair David Mahlobo indicated the conference agreed to proposals from Motsoaledi that permits and visas system should be overhauled so there was clarity and proper legislation on migration.

Home Affairs would be capacitated to be able to carry out this function.

The conference suggested the establishment of refugee reception centres near the borders with neighbouring countries.

When implement, the new set up would see refugees being treated in terms of the United Nations conventions for the first time since 1994.

“That is a very strong recommendation,” Mahlobo said.

The ANC suggested that SA must withdraw from 1951 convention on refugees that it assented considering the experiences of other countries.

They believe the withdrawal would help SA deal with its refugee crisis without being bound by the agreement.

“South Africa must withdraw but will deposit a new instrument to be able to manage our own issues and pressure it faces,” Mahlobo said.

Without the ANC framework, Motsoaledi had made great progress towards addressing the migration crisis.

His initiatives included appointing internal investigative committee to review all fraudulent permits and visas issued since 2004.

The committee, chaired by former director-general Dr Cassius Lubisi, has former sleuths from the Special Investigating Unit, the Zondo Commission and the Auditor-General.

It also set up the Border Management Authority and recently launched the border guards to patrol the country’s porous borders.

The next would be to establish a multi-departmental migration management board, representing all departments impacted by migration with representatives from unions and civil society.

Motsoaledi has been praised in some quarters for his interventions, which are running ahead of the ANC’s policy formulation.

Motsoaledi and Mahlobo conceded the ANC never had an over-arching framework on migration, something that observers attributed to the migration crisis.

Motsoaledi said even the passed Citizenship Act of 1995, the Refugee Act of 1998, the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 and the newly enacted Border Management Act of 2020 were not based on any framework guidance.

Motsoaledi, who had presented his proposals to the ANC provincial structures in Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape and were discussed by all the party branches, had described chaos caused by lack of clear policy.

He said internal anti-corruption unit headed by a deputy director-general (DDG) he appointed discovered fraud involving illegal issuing of permits and visas by Home Affairs officials.

Twelve of the 14 officials from the section had attempted to petition Motsoaledi for the DDG to stop investigating “our errors”.

“Very week we are arresting people who issue those permits. If they are conceding to issuing permits by error, it means many people were brought to this country erroneously and illegally. It means there is corruption happening,” Motsoaledi said.

He said the worst fraud was where people as young as 16 were issued with retirement permits.

The officials also fraudulently issued permanent residence permit for flamboyant pastor Shepherd Bushiri and his family and the Nigeria preacher Timothy Omotoso, who is on trial for rape and human trafficking.

www.samigration.com

Zimbabwe exemption permit saga: Home Affairs facing fresh lawsuit as another challenger enters fray

News 24 – 1 August 2022

• The Zimbabwean Immigration Federation is taking the Department of Home Affairs to court over the termination of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit.
• The organisation wants the department to start the review process for permits afresh.
• It says its members will face discrimination and reprisal if they go back to Zimbabwe.

The Department of Home Affairs is facing another lawsuit relating to the looming termination of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP).

The ZEP is a special dispensation permit established more than 10 years ago that gives legal protection to an estimated 178 000 Zimbabwean nationals to live, work and study in South Africa.

However, the Cabinet decided in January that the arrangement must be terminated by December and that applicants should apply for a visa to remain in South Africa, based on a list of critical skills needed in the country.

In June, the Helen Suzman Foundation said it would be taking the government to court for discontinuing the permits. It said termination would turn ZEP holders in South Africa into undocumented migrants and force them to return to Zimbabwe if they did not meet the strict conditions of one of the visa categories on offer. The foundation said they would face similar conditions to what had led them to flee.

Now, another organisation – the Zimbabwean Immigration Federation (ZIF) – is also hauling the department to court.

In its papers, the organisation cited the Department of Home Affairs, President Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African Police Service, the South African National Defence Force, and the Border Management Authority.

The application, filed at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, was aimed at interdicting government departments from arresting or deporting ZEP holders once their permits expired at the end of the year.

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The organisation also wanted ZEP holders to be able to leave or enter the country legally if all their other travel documentation was in order.

In the second part of its application, the ZIF wanted home affairs to review the decision not to extend the ZEP. The organisation also wanted the department to restart the review process for permits and, in the meantime, allow ZEP holders to remain in the country.

It contended that the termination of the ZEP would "impose a severe administrative burden on the Department of Home Affairs – who have not made reasonable steps to ensure they will be able to deal with the impending flood of applications by Zimbabwean Exemption Permit holders that will be lodged under the Refugees Act".

The Gukurahundi massacre and apartheid

In its court papers, the organisation further argued that members of the ZIF were victims of the Gukurahundi massacre who had been left homeless.

"They were asylum seekers in South Africa before the DZP [Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project] in 2009 and have since remained in South Africa as holders of permits issued under the subsequent ministerial exemption dispensation."

Cabinet created the DZP in April 2009, which was later renamed the ZEP.

The organisation said they were also worried that members of the LGBTQI community would face discrimination in Zimbabwe.

"Sending asylum seekers and refugees back to Zimbabwe will expose them to persecution in stark violation of South African law and international law," it argued in its court papers.

The ZIF said Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi was allowed to withdraw the permits under the immigration law, provided there was a good cause. However, it said the minister had erred in his decision to end the permits because he "failed to take into account relevant considerations in making the impugned decision".

The ZIF added:

The Minister's approach to the withdrawal of the exemptions that had been granted to Zimbabwean nationals is reminiscent of the brutal international migration policy adopted by the Apartheid regime, which imposed blunt immigration controls and tight restrictions on Africans it considered undesirable, regardless of the severe harm caused to their human dignity and rights.

It argued that the decision to terminate the ZEP would also lead to families being torn apart as most ZIF members didn't qualify for alternative visas under the critical skills category.

"Many Zimbabwean nationals who hold the ministerial exemptions permits have married South African nationals or have children who hold South African identification and travel documents. The minister's decision accordingly threatens to break up families and displace many people if implemented."

Permit holders were also likely to lose their businesses and property, the court papers stated.

Home affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said the department's lawyers had filed a motion to oppose the ZIF court action.

Qoza said the department was facing four court cases in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria regarding the ZEP.

www.samigration.com

Zimbabwean Governmnet Taking SA Government To Court For Not Renewing Zim Work Permits

News Hub Creator 28-07-2022

We know that there are many foreigners living in the country but more than often, Zimbabweans are always the ones who are problematic because they think that they know too much about South Africa, and if it were according to them, they would call themselves South Africans as we know that there are those who are already doing that. Those who are already in the country are fighting so hard to ensure that they remain in the country and those who are in Zimbabwe are fighting to come to South Africa. It is just a battle and South Africans are pushing back.

The Zimbabwean government is now fighting the South African government.

The ANC government has disappointed and sold the people of South Africa because it is because of the ANC that we are having all these kinds of issues. They are now all over the place when they see that South Africans are not giving up the fight against illegal immigration.

As if this was not enough, we are now having the Zimbabwean government that is taking the minister of home affairs to court just because he did not renew the Zim Work Permits. They are trying to interdict him from deporting those Zimbabweans when the time has come, and they have not fixed their documents because those permits are expiring very soon.

Post Covid, South Africa is back in business

City Press – 28 July 2022

There’s an isiZulu idiom that posits, ‘Isisu somhambi singangenso yenyoni.’ Directly translated, it suggests that a visitor’s belly (satiation capacity) is as small as the size of a bird’s kidney. But, this translation belies the profound and instructive meaning.

The true and deeper meaning speaks to the unstoppable spirit of hospitality, generosity and sharing of what little you have. A spirit so innate to African life that extending these courtesies even to a total stranger who just so happens to visit one’s home is considered no burden at all.

In the traditional, rustic village life of old, it was not uncommon for a weary traveler far from home, battered by the day’s travels, troubles and toils to at dusk approach any home on his or her path in this spirit, and be welcomed in that unique ubuntu-inspired hospitality.

Despite the vastly changed social setting in our country, that spirit of ubuntu has never left us as a people. The genuineness of the smiles we give visitors when they come to our shores, going out of our way to assist them where they need directions or recommendations for the best braai spot, the soul and passion we pour into our conversations and the laughter and dance when we entertain are some of the traits that consistently rank highly when tourists from various parts of the world are asked about their experiences in our beautiful country.

To think that we, as Africans in the southern tip of our continent, are an anomaly in this regard would be complete folly. And, I suspect no one knows this better than Boipelo Tladinyane Hlubi, who bears the truly unique honour of having visited 54 of the continent’s 55 countries in an epic backpacking adventure.

See, Boipelo told delegates at the recently concluded Africa’s Travel Indaba about the incredible hospitality of the people she encountered and that hit home powerfully once again. She told of the intrigued-yet-warm African smiles with which she was received into and sheltered overnight in people’s homes, allowed to sleep on a rooftop and at the beach, among many overnight stays.

I also imagine the journey her palate must have also taken, from pap and nyama in the south to sadza ne nyama in Zimbabwe, nshima and kapenta in Zambia, to ugali na nyama choma in Kenya, to yam and egusi in Nigeria, and fufu and njama njama in Cameroon. Notice how many of the above-mentioned dishes refer to meat in some iteration of the word nyama? It and several others are the emphatic etymological proclamation - we are one!

Boipelo no doubt returned with tons of stories from her travels, as her book, A Safari Back to Self, attests. But equally, she undoubtedly imparted her “South African-ness” to those she encountered, as much as those countries all deposited something into the person she is today.

 This is what my Ghanaian counterpart Koffi Atta Kakra Kusi had in mind when he told us at Africa’s Travel Indaba that the story of Africa can be told through our heritage, natural resources, culture and traditions, as well as our values and customs as a people.

So, allow me to lay down a challenge for you, my fellow South Africans. This is a challenge that is perhaps aptly captured by the colloquialism: ‘Let’s keep it real’. Let us be true to who we are, as a people. Let us be true to the values of our unimpeachable humanity that has over generations enamoured us with people the world over. Let us not grow weary of extending the kind of ‘give you the shirt off my back’, exuberant hospitality and generosity.

After all, the economic benefits of doing so commend themselves. In the first three months of this year, for example, there were 1 047 558 international tourist arrivals into our country, representing a much-needed 170.7% increase when compared to the same period last year. Of those, a landslide 778 313 were tourists from other countries in our continent, rendering Europe, our second-biggest source market, with a contribution of 192 494 tourists, minuscule by comparison. Importantly, these visitors spent millions of rands staying in our lodges, hotels and B&Bs, eating out at restaurants, hiring vehicles and shuttles, and shopping in our malls and flea markets.

But, beyond the rands and cents sense of it all, our disposition is and should always be of arms wide open and ready to welcome. This is especially true in the year that marks exactly 20 years since the ideal of an African Renaissance was born, with the launch of the African Union in our ever-warm city of Durban.

I can think of no better way to take individual ownership of and give full meaning and content to our former president Thabo Mbeki’s timeless words: “Being part of all these people and in the knowledge that none dare contest that assertion, I shall claim that I am an African” than to be as exuberant as ever in our hospitality.

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Hire foreigners illegally, 'face the music' warns Nxesi as road freight blitz puts 11 behind bars

Fin24 – 28 July 2022

• Eleven undocumented foreign workers were arrested in a government 'mega blitz' on the road freight sector in the North West province - adding to more than 200 foreign drivers already arrested this year for operating illegally. 
• This comes amid rising tension in the trucking industry which is believed to have cost the economy some R300 million. 
• The 'blitzes' are part of a bigger government crackdown on non-compliance with labour laws, though the inter-ministerial committee on trucking and logistics also has an 11-point plan to try to deal with tensions in the road freight sector. 

Over 50 contravention notices were issued and 11 undocumented foreign workers arrested in a week-long blitz on the road freight sector in Potchefstroom, North West, the Department of Employment and Labour has said.

The crackdown, which wrapped up this week, is part of a series of so-called 'mega blitz' inspections the department is carrying out across the country to ensure compliance with labour laws. According to government, the manufacturing sector will be up next.

The road freight blitz was a joint effort between the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the South African Police Service (SAPS), and the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFLI).

A spokesperson for the Department of Employment and Labour said among some 180 employers who were inspected, the 50 notices issued included a range of offences from underpayment to illegal deductions, safety violations, and the hiring of undocumented workers. One of the employers risked employees' lives with a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act's regulations on electrical installations, said Inspector General Aggy Moiloa.

'Most' employers underpaying

"What we discovered during these inspections is that most employers are underpaying their employees, making illegal deductions, and failing to provide their employees with payslips and employment contracts.

"We have since issued them with contravention notices, and we expect them to correct this within the time frames specified," said Moiloa.

Roadblock blitz

Earlier in the week, four undocumented foreign nationals were arrested at a roadblock along the busy N12 route. This followed the arrest of seven others on Wednesday at a local company.

All are due to appear in the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court.

While it was the workers who were arrested, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi said employers who hired undocumented workers would "face the music".

"We have already found that several truck drivers are undocumented – are not paid in terms of the collective agreements and are not registered for the unemployment insurance fund. We are warning employers to ensure that they abide by the labour laws or face the music," he said.

Several ministers had last month committed to intensifying their attention on the employment of undocumented foreign nationals, he added.

The minister's remarks on exploitative labour practices have an unlikely ally in local truckers, who have complained that foreign nationals are often favoured for jobs because they are easier to exploit. The road freight sector has seen rising unrest over a period of years, which has intensified in recent months, as truck drivers protest the hiring of foreign workers.

In June, the Road Freight Association wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa in desperation to ask for urgent intervention as protesting truckers blockaded some of SA's key cargo routes.

While the N3 was a major target, the letter also highlighted delays on the N17, N11, N2, R59, and R74.

Amid the shutdown, motorists were also warned to avoid the N12 in the North West – in the area where four of the abovementioned workers were arrested – as truckers blockaded the road in protest against the hiring of foreign drivers.

It has been estimated that the truck driver protests have cost the SA economy up to R300 million.

At the end of June, the inter-ministerial committee on trucking and logistics – which comprises the ministers of transport and home affairs, police and labour – said over 200 foreign truck drivers had been arrested since the beginning of the year for operating unlawfully.

The committee was formed in 2019 in response to protests in the trucking industry. The committee said it had an 11-point action plan, one of which was to enforce visa requirements and other regulations, as well as labour laws, in the sector. 

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