It’s time to turn the
department of home affairs around
Mail & Guardian - 15 Apr 2022
The
outcry is growing from the South African public about the lacklustre services
that department of home affairs officials provide, a saga that has been ongoing for years. The list of grievances
includes disheartening queues, which commence beyond the entrances of most of
the home affairs branches, key machinery being intermittently offline, fallible
officials prone to bribery and most recently, the growing calls for the
resignation of Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
In my
view, Motsoaledi is among the few performing ministers in an obsolete ANC-led
government. He is sadly let down in his present ministry and its inept and
corrupt staff. Removing him instead of the entire ANC cabinet would be similar
to playing the man instead of the ball; such a move would not change
anything.
The
department is plagued by obstinate challenges. The latest Hawks bust of a fake passport syndicate on 24
March 2022 is among a string of sagas that support claims of corrupt activities
there. Motsoaledi confirmed that 29 suspects including an alleged kingpin, who
was the mastermind behind the operation of selling fraudulent passports, were
arrested in the home affairs office in Krugersdorp. More arrests are imminent
at other branches. Details of the modus operandi of this syndicate
confirm the deep rot of maladministration that disregards the immigration laws
of South Africa. There have been many similar cases exposed at all levels of
government by, for instance, the Zondo commission.
Now there
is “Operation Dudula” in Gauteng. These
people justify their operations under the pretense of “putting South Africans
first” and direct their aggression against Africans they view as
“undocumented foreign nationals”. Such categorisation of fellow Africans must
be firmly rejected.
Predictably
members of the public unimpressed with Operation Dudula have slated it as being
xenophobic. I opine that the latter charge is erroneous: in our local context
it must appropriately be regarded as Afrophobia, as the attacks are taking
place only between indigenous Africans.
In a
recent interview Motsoaledi found himself compelled to side with President
Cyril Ramaphosa, who went as far as labelling
Dudula as a “vigilante-like force”. Such demeaning name-calling by
the President was unnecessary. Ironically, the “vigilantes” argue that they are
helping government, especially the department of home affairs and the Police,
by weeding out “undocumented foreign nationals”. Motsoaledi refutes any
association between the department of home affairs and Dudula.
His
department has however been in a quagmire for quite some time. But he should
not be in denial of the realities that his department must confront, and sketch
out his plans to overcome the identified problems. For starters the department’s website should stop giving the
misleading impression that it actually functions. Denialism will not solve
anything.
In
reality, when one considers the malfeasance by an array of rogue individuals
with proximity to power, then the maladministration and corruption at the
department of home affairs (as elsewhere) should not astonish anyone. Required
solution(s) must begin from the premise that more than enough documents
outlining the rules and regulations of running government departments exist.
What has always been lacking is sufficient ethical officials, with the
political will to adhere to and implement the law.
www.samigration.com
