Gigaba denies visa law ‘personal’

Home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba has vehemently denied allegations that he tightened regulations for children travelling into and out of SA because of a personal vendetta.

He was forced to make the denial after journalist-turnedauthor Redi Tlhabi took to Twitter on Tuesday night to slate Gigaba‚ who had earlier in the day announced that the much-criticised visa regulations were being loosened.

“Minister when are we going to have the real conversation? When are you going to be honest with the nation and tell us why you were adamant that your brainless visa regulations for travelling with minors were personal?” Tlhabi tweeted.

“Is it not true that you were livid when a cousin of your exwife travelled with your daughter ‚ while your wife was in Cuba?,” she went on further.

“Upon finding out‚ you laid charges of kidnapping . . .

“You had a personal issue of your ex-wife making travel arrangements with your daughter without your consent.”

In 2015‚ the department introduced stringent child-travel laws, arguing that this was to combat child trafficking.

Tlhabi said Gigaba’s u-turn on the laws made her believe the claims that this matter had nothing to do with trafficking.

Contacted by TimesLIVE‚ Gigaba’s spokesperson Thabo Mokgola said: “The minister views these tweets as irresponsible and unfortunate.”

But on SABC’s Morning Live on Wednesday‚ Gigaba denied Tlhabi’s claims. Pressed on the allegations that the law was personal, he said: “I know the person who tweeted about that; she was talking about something that was absolute bollocks.”

He later went on: “These regulations had been worked on while I was minister of public enterprises‚ and as I walked in [to home affairs] they were sitting on my desk.

“We finalised them and I had to introduce them.”