The City of Tshwane’s fight against hijacking of inner-city buildings could soon take a new turn aimed at deporting illegal immigrants likely to be found guilty of invading those properties.
This comes after MMC for Community Safety, Grandi Theunissen, also FF Plus councillor, indicated that the municipality and the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, agreed to join hands in addressing the problem.
“It is expected that a formal co-operative agreement will be entered into soon,” he said.
As part of the agreement, he said, illegal immigrants, particularly those guilty of crime and illegal land occupation, will soon be deported to their country of origin.
Theunissen said: “The FF Plus discussed how to address several pressing problems, including illegal land occupation, crime, the sale of counterfeit goods, cable theft, illegal electricity connections and extortion, with Minister Schreiber on Friday.”
He cited foreigners who illegally occupy abandoned buildings in the city centre as one of the biggest issues.
Illegal occupants, he said, would rent rooms to other undocumented foreigners which poses a health, fire and safety risk.
“It is suspected that syndicates are working with city officials, law firms and the deeds office to transfer properties to criminals’ names,” he said.
He pointed out that large quantities of counterfeit goods are being sold in Pretoria west, where many Somalis live, while drug trafficking is the order of the day in Sunnyside where mostly Nigerians live.
“Centurion and Pretoria East, where Zimbabweans and Mozambicans are concentrated, are affected by cable theft and infrastructure vandalism.
He said the minister was asked to help with immediate deportation, more stringent border control and investigating corruption at South African borders.
“The FF Plus is of the opinion that other departments should also be involved to curb the problem effectively. The illegal hijacking of buildings in Tshwane must be stopped, so, the FF Plus is committed to eradicating the problem and the crime that goes hand in hand with it,” he said.
Early this year former MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Kingsley Wakelin, now MP, said the City wanted to tackle hijacked and illegally occupied buildings in the Pretoria CBD in line with a resolution passed by council.
Melgisedek buildings in Riviera were said to be top on the list of illegally occupied properties targeted by the City in terms of the council-approved programme called Tshwane Sustainable and Better Buildings.
The programme is aimed at driving inner-city regeneration by tackling derelict and illegally occupied buildings.
Wakelin said negligent property owners, slumlords, and building hijacking syndicates have taken advantage of people desperate for affordable and well-located accommodation, leading to the illegal occupation of buildings

The short answer
Unfortunately the short answer is that there does not seem to be a way to compel Home Affairs to resolve matters urgently.
The whole question
I applied for my ZEP permit in November 2017. It was rejected because of a technicality to do with my fingerprints and a withdrawn police case. After visiting the Midrand office I was inform that my appeal can take as long as six months. This is frustrating my life. Please can you help me resolve it urgently.
The long answer
Thank you for your email about whether your ZEP appeal process can be speeded up.
Please not we are a news agency, not the government, and we are not in any way responsible for the ZEP.
This must truly be a very frustrating process for you. Unfortunately the short answer is that there does not seem to be a way to compel Home Affairs to resolve matters urgently, as the courts have not ruled on how long a person must wait for the outcome of an appeal before the delay is considered unreasonable. But certainly the High court can rule that a delay is unreasonable.
VFS Global, which processes applications and appeals for Home Affairs, announced that all appeals would follow a revised online process effective from 29 January 2019. They say that you can only submit an appeal application once you’ve collected your previous application from the VFS application centre, and that this appeal has to be made within ten days of the date of collecting the rejected application. These appeals are made in terms of Section 8 (4) or 8 (6) of the Immigration Act, which in effect means you are saying that based on the documents you submitted in your application, the decision to reject your application is wrong and must be reversed. You can appeal once under 8(4) and if that is rejected, you can appeal once more under 8(6), and in that case the director general at Home Affairs must review the decision.
But Munyaradzi Nkomo, immigration specialist at Strategies Migration Services SA, also says that if the ZEP is rejected on the grounds of a negative police record

The short answer
The is a complex question , it depends which stage of the process you are in but if you are in early stages if asylum then yes you can
The long answer
Thank you for your letter asking if you can extend your asylum from a different Refugee Reception Office (RRO) than the Durban RRO where you got your asylum.
We quote advice from a person who has had experience of extending their asylum:
• Go to the same RRO where you got your asylum.
• Do this a week or two before it expires. If you leave it too close to expiry they will turn you away. If you go too long before expiry they will also turn you away.
• You should go early in the morning (e.g. 2am) to have a good chance of being served. The queues are long and they only take a certain number of people. Try to be in the first 50.
• Most of the people outside who offer you help are scam artists, so be careful.
• Once you are inside the process should work better. Your asylum papers will be taken from you. You might then have to wait a long time, but hopefully before the end of the day the renewed papers will be returned to you. There might be different queues for men and women. There might also be days set aside for people of your nationality.

The short answer
Home Affairs now has a system where you can check the status of your application by SMS.
The whole question
I am a 25-year-old male. I matriculated in 2013. From 2014 to 2016 I studied at a TVET College. I never knew my parents. I was brought up by guardians.
In 2022 applied for an ID. It never arrived and I wrote my matric with my duplicate. When I followed up, Home Affairs said I must re-apply, but did not say why. I applied again but have still not received an ID.
Now I can't get a job because I have not got an ID.
The long answer
Thank you for your email about not getting your ID after applying twice – a horribly frustrating business.
Home Affairs now has a system where you can check the status of your application by SMS. You send an SMS to 32551 with the letters ID, followed by a space, followed by your ID number.
You can also contact them by email: hacc@dha.gov.za .If that doesn’t come up with anything, maybe you should just cut your losses and start again.
You have to hand in your completed application form in person at your nearest Home Affairs office. Home Affairs says that it has radically cut down the time it takes to get your ID in the post. They say allow two weeks from the date of your application to get your photo ID.

Illegal land occupation has been a very big problem in Pretoria east for decades now, with the evolution of more than two informal settlements, with dwellers being illegal immigrants. Tshwane metro will look to work with Home Affairs to combat illegal land occupation, illegal immigration and theft, according to FF Plus councillor and MMC for community safety in Tshwane, Grandi Theunissen. Theunissen said illegal immigrants, particularly those guilty of crime and illegal land occupation, will soon be deported to their country of origin. Illegal land occupation has been a very big problem in Pretoria east for decades now. He said Centurion and Pretoria east, have been besieged by land grabs and infrastructure vandalism allegedly at the hands of illegal immigrants. “The Tshwane metro and the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, agreed on Friday, September 6 to co-operate and address the problem. It is expected that a formal co-operative agreement will be entered into soon.” Theunissen added that the FF Plus discussed how to address several pressing problems, including illegal land occupation, crime, the sale of counterfeit goods, cable theft, illegal electricity connections and extortion, with Schreiber. He said syndicates are allegedly working with city officials, law firms and the deeds office to transfer properties to the names of criminals. “Large quantities of counterfeit goods are sold in Pretoria West, where many Somalis live, while drug trafficking is the order of the day in Sunnyside (known as Little Lagos), where mostly Nigerians live,” he said. Theunissen said Centurion and Pretoria east, where illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe and Mozambique are concentrated, led in cable theft and infrastructure vandalism. “In addition to helping with immigration control, the minister was also asked to help with immediate deportation, more stringent border control and investigating corruption at South African borders.” He said the FF Plus believes that other departments should also be involved in curbing the problem effectively. “The illegal hijacking of buildings in Tshwane must be stopped, so, the FF Plus is committed to eradicating the problem and the crime that goes hand in hand with it.” Recently residents of Garsfontein worried about the illegal land occupation and erection of structures along Garstfontein Road opposite Builders Warehouse. The residents stated that land grabbing also led to illegal dumping, which is an ongoing nightmare. They have raised concerns regarding this issue also being a major health and environmental hazard. Despite the efforts of organisations in the area to clean up the illegal dumping sites, the problem has escalated in some areas. Most worrying is the illegal dumping behind Plastic View between De Villebois Mareuil Drive and Mooikloof Ridge Estate, where the extent of the issue has become much more significant. Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the metro recently established a task team which comprises various departments to look at several by-law enforcement, land invasion and illegal dumping. “As part of the intervention actions, the Tshwane Metro Police (TMPD) By-law Enforcement section together with the Environmental Management Inspector and Waste Management officials, warned the informal recyclers illegally dumping waste along Garstfontein Road to remove it within 14 days.” Mashigo said furthermore, the department has developed an illegal dumping clearance schedule that focuses on the removal of builder rubble that is dumped along this route to prevent environmental degradation of this area. He said the city is inundated with illegal dumping, hence it is impossible for it to clear all the spots as soon as they are reported. This was the reason the Rekaofela campaign has been launched to invite the community to join hands with the city to fight illegal dumping, he added.