Zimbos In SA Bank On ConCourt Ruling Over Permits

25 January 2022 – Zimeye

By A Correspondent- A South African Constitutional Court ruling late last year could provide some reprieve for Zimbabweans battling possible deportation after the expiry of their special exemption permits last month.

Nearly 200 000 Zimbabweans living in South Africa on a Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) have been given a 12-month grace period to regularise their papers or risk detention and deportation. This followed a cabinet resolution not to renew the permits when they expired last month.

The ConCourt ruling in a case of an Ethiopian national, Desta Abore, who was detained awaiting deportation, states that refugees and asylum seekers can apply for permits and stay in South Africa pending the outcome of their applications.

According to reports from South Africa, the ConCourt decision rescued Abore from unlawful detention and brought the much-needed clarity to the application of the new amendments to the Refugees Act in relation to asylum applications.

Various legal experts told the NewsDay Weekender that Zimbabweans in South Africa could take advantage of the ConCourt ruling to extend their stay in that country.

In an interview, a lawyer representing former special permit holders who are fighting for permanent residency in South Africa, Simba Chitando, hailed the ConCourt judgment.

“The judgment sets a good precedent in support of the rights of migrants generally, even though it does not specifically deal with the rights of ZEP holders. It speaks to the position of the courts, which appears positive for migrants in the republic,” he said

An attorney at Nonyane Inc in Pretoria, Thabang Nonyane, concurred, adding that the judgment gave some reprieve to Zimbabweans living in the neighbouring country.

“In simple terms, the implication of the judgment is that once a foreigner has declared his or her intention to apply for an asylum or refugee status, he or she must be given an opportunity to do so by means of being issued a temporary permit.

“The permit should be valid until the Department of Home Affairs has made a determination to the asylum or refugee application. Pending the determination by Department of Home Affairs, the foreigner may not be arrested,” Nonyane said.

Khulekani Moyo of Wits University Law School said: “Regulation 7 of the new regulations to the Refugees Act 130 of 1998 provides that a person must declare his or her intention to apply for asylum at a port of entry before entering the republic and must be issued with an asylum transit visa which is valid for five days.”

“An applicant for asylum must, in terms of Regulation 8, show good cause why he or she is not in possession of an asylum transit visa before he or she is allowed to make an application for asylum – good cause which is required to be shown refers to the reasons that must be given on why the applicant for asylum does not have an asylum transit visa,” he said.

Moyo, however, said Regulation 7 did not assist asylum seekers who did not declare such an intention at a port of entry and before entering South Africa.

“It also does not assist asylum seekers who do not enter the Republic through an official border post. Many do not, given their precarious position as illegal foreigners fleeing their home countries due to a well-founded fear of persecution,” he said.

Abore reportedly entered South Africa illegally through Zimbabwe in December 2019, telling the court that he escaped persecution in his home country given his involvement in opposition politics.

He was arrested in July 2020 in Eshowe, northern KwaZulu-Natal, and was convicted and sentenced by the local magistrate’s court to 50 days imprisonment with an option to pay a fine of R1 500 for entering the country unlawfully. Despite paying the fine, Abore served his prison sentence and his detention, which was supposed to end on August 25 2020, continued beyond that date staying in prison for more than a year.

In February last year, the Department of Home Affairs applied for a warrant extending Abore’s detention for purposes of deporting him. Aggrieved by this, Abore approached the High Court to stay his deportation.-newsday

www.samigration.com

Action SA Unravel a Warehouse where Fake Permits, Visas, Passports are Produced in Palmridge.

Opera News = 25-01-2021

ActionSA is one of the group engaging in this operation aimed at stopping illegal businesses owned by foreigners from operating in South Africa.

In one of the operation, ActionSA visited a warehouse situated in Palmridge where immigrants produce and sell fake South African documents.

Some of the documents found in the custody of the business owners include Visas, different types of permit documents, business operation permit, municipality permits, birth certificates etc.

This will definitely serve as a deterrent to individuals who undermine our local laws and also ensure that documentation fraud is reduced to its barest minimum.

Local authorities should augment this operation so that rule of law will be restored in our communities.

According to a statement released by ActionSA via its official Twitter handle:

"One such business is a warehouse in Palmridge that has been illegally producing documents such as passports, visa/permit documents, business operation permits and Municipal permits!

The matter is receiving special attention from the MMC, Councillor and City officials."

.www.samigration.com

Minister Motsoaledi gets tough on work permits

Opera Newss -  21/01/2022

Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi is leaving no stones unturned in his quest for rooting out corruption. 

Vukani Kusile Foundation’s Solly Masilela said: “It will take time for the clean-up to be a success because corruption and maladministration of the immigration laws and regulations is too entrenched and linked to other departments, such as the department of international relations and cooperation. It is a step in the right direction though.”

Masilela added that the SA immigration system had taken such a knock that SA-issued documents were not worth the paper they were printed on.

Motsoaledi has received the report of the task team up in March to review some permits in a raft of categories. These include permanent residence permits and citizenship by naturalisation issued since 2004.

His office said he would make an announcement soon.

The need to review the permits was triggered by a trend emerging from the outcomes of cases involving high-profile people investigated by the department’s corruption unit. In February the minister revealed that Enlightened Christian Gathering leader Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary, had been in South Africa illegally.

The unit has established that 66% of cases involved immigration permitting.

Motsoaledi has said that in November last year, during a top-level investigation, he was shocked when 14 members of the permitting section signed a petition demanding that the corruption unit stop investigating their errors.

The minister said this admission strengthened his resolve to have a more transparent permit issuing regime.

Other permits on Motsoaledi’s radar are corporate visas, business visas, professional/critical skills visas, retired person’s visas and study visas.

Last week home, a home affairs official, Democratic Republic of the Congo national Mbemba Pierre Mahinga, was dealt a blow when the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his application to stop the department stripping him of his SA citizenship

www.samigration.com

South Africa to investigate foreigners with permits in February

21 January 2022 – Zimbabwe Mail

The South Africa Department of Home Affairs will begin a Citizen Authentication System  which is set to verify permits and Visas issued to foreigners since 2004.

The operation is aimed at fishing out individuals who fraudulently acquired permits to stay in the country.

The Home Affairs Minister Aaaron Motsoaledi said the need to review the permits came after realising a trend emerging from the outcomes of cases involving prominent people investigated by the Department’s Counter Corruption Unit, which investigates wrongdoing by departmental officials.

“In November 2020, during a high-powered investigation, I was alarmed when 14 members of the permitting section signed a petition demanding that the Counter Corruption unit should stop investigating their errors. This admission strengthened my resolve to have a more transparent permit issuance regime.” He said.

www.samigration.com

Malema concedes there is nothing untoward about Mall of Africa restaurants' hiring policies

News 24 – 21/01/2022

• Despite initially saying that restaurants at the Mall of Africa in Midrand were using discriminatory policies that favoured foreigners, Julius Malema on Wednesday conceded that this is not so. 
• The EFF leader’s change of mind came after meeting with the management of three restaurants. 
• Malema justified his unsanctioned visits, saying they were being conducted in his capacity as an MP. 

After forcing his way into at least three restaurants at the Mall of Africa in Johannesburg on Wednesday - and demanding to see the businesses’ employment details, so as to ascertain the ratio of foreign and local employees - EFF leader Julius Malema eventually conceded that it was not true that the establishments were inclined towards hiring mainly foreign nationals. 

"We have gone to three restaurants, and we are well certified that they are adhering to what we are looking for. Kream has an almost 50/50 employment ratio when it comes to foreign nationals and locals, while the other restaurants, Ponta and Doppio Zero, have got a majority of their employees being South Africans. 

"We want to make an emphasis to the owners of restaurants that no one should stop employing Zimbabweans here; we want them to work here because this is their home. There should be no apology about hiring Zimbambweans or any other African brothers or sisters. In doing so, businesses must also still remain conscious that there are locals who must be given a preference," said the EFF leader. 

Malema, who had initially insisted that the restaurants, particularly Kream, was hiring mostly foreign nationals, eventually backed down following protracted meetings with the management of the various restaurants. 

The EFF leader initially got into a verbal confrontation with a manager at Kream Restaurant, who had at first refused to grant the EFF leader and his delegation access into the restaurant. 

The Kream restaurant manager, who refused to identify himself to the EFF or the media, told Malema that he could only hand over a letter from the business owners and could not engage with the party’s leadership on the premises. 

He also asked Malema in which capacity he was visiting the establishment. 

The irate EFF leader said he had come to visit the restaurants in his capacity as a Member of Parliament, and warned the manager that should they not let them in, the business would not operate for the day. 

"We will call our members to come and shut this establishment down," said Malema, who also promised to close all other Kream branches across Gauteng. 

He accused the establishment’s management of being arrogant, given that they had apparently agreed to meet with his party on Tuesday, only to renege. 

Malema was asked whether his visit, and claim that he was checking the ratio between foreign and South African nationals, would not lead to xenophobic attacks.

He answered that it was the restaurant owners who were cultivating tensions between foreigners and locals through practicing exclusionary employment tactics that favoured foreigners. 

"They employ foreign nationals, then come to us citizens and say these people are taking your jobs, which leads to us hating each other as Africans," said Malema. 

'We are singing from the same hymn book'

However, after making all these unsubstantiated claims, the EFF leader, after visiting three restaurants at the same mall, then conceded that his initial suspicions had been proven wrong. 

He did, however, maintain that "businesses can not have a situation where they exclude South Africans, and we have made that point clear to everyone, and they all agree that we have a problem of high unemployment and a problem of poverty as a country, which can only be resolved through employment".

Malema said:

We are highly encouraged that we are singing from the same hymn book… One of the managers we met in the restaurants was a South African manager and empathically made the point that he could not sit in a managerial position to the exclusion of their own citizens.

He added that unity in Africa could only be established from working together: "it's not unity through speeches and rhetoric, it must be shown through actions.

“The problems faced by foreign nationals at workplaces should be embraced as our own problems, as well to that at the end of the day employers treat everyone equally and pay everyone the same. All these points were made clear," said Malema. 

He also claimed that the Kream management had since apologised for their behaviour and had blamed it on their legal department. 

"They said that someone gave them a letter not to engage with us. They all had their facts in order. They had a list of their employees, their ID number, and passports for those who are non-South African, to prove to us that they are indeed trying and are trying to employ as many South Africans as possible."

Malema insisted that the revived stance on foreign employment in South Africa was not a new thing within his party ranks. 

"We have always been clear on our stance, and people are distorting our position. What we have always maintained is that there is no one who will drive Africans out of South Africa.

"Even if we chase them out of this country, we will still have an unemployment crisis. The people who are the instigators are the employers who employs foreign nationals and then say they are taking your jobs in an attempt to divide us as brothers."

www.samigration.com