Home affairs probes visas and permits
Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has appointed a team of experts to review several categories of permits and visas issued since May 2004, when the Immigration Act came into force, to determine if they were granted regularly.
Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has appointed a team of experts to review several categories of permits and visas issued since May 2004, when the Immigration Act came into force, to determine if they were granted regularly.
All permanent residence permits, corporate permits (especially in the mining industry), study visas, work permits for professionals, citizen naturalisation and retirement visas issued over this period will be examined. Motsoaledi told parliament’s home affairs committee on Friday that some of these permits had been granted under dubious circumstances.
The review was prompted by findings of the department’s anti-corruption unit and immigration branch, which Motsoaledi said raised “disturbing issues”.
The minister said it was offensive that wealthy individuals wanted certain favours from the permit section.
“We want to pay attention to them, to see how they managed to obtain their permits,” he said.
The terms of reference for the team of experts, which includes forensic investigators, an advocate and an attorney, have been developed and it has been given three months to produce a draft report of its findings.
The investigation would also highlight system deficiencies in the department.
Motsoaledi told MPs that the department was drafting guidelines on the use of discretion by the minister in approving the early naturalisation of people as instructed by public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
This was to ensure there was a uniform approach to exceptional circumstances such as granting the naturalisation to an investor who could help boost the economy, an academic or a sports star. The guidelines would be finalised by March 15.
Mkhwebane’s report was prompted by former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba’s use of ministerial discretion to grant SA citizenship to members of the Gupta family in 2015.
Mkhwebane found that Gigaba had not abused his powers in granting the Guptas early naturalisation but failed to declare this to parliament within the required period of 14 days. She also found that Gigaba granted the citizenship without proper validation of the requisite exceptional circumstances.
She found that the discretion given to ministers to grant early naturalisation was too wide and there needed to be guidelines. She ruled that the minister not only inform parliament who had been granted early naturalisation but also provide all the documentation on which this decision was based.
Motsoaledi said draft amendment regulations were being developed to detail what information an applicant for early naturalisation needed to provide in a prescribed form to motivate their application. Normally a person becomes eligible for SA citizenship through naturalisation if they have held a permanent residence permit for at least five years. The draft regulations will be published for public comment and Motsoaledi expects the final regulations to be gazetted by June.
Home affairs director-general Livhuwani Makhode told MPs the department’s human resources unit was dealing with 10 of the 16 officials implicated in the Gupta saga, the other six having left the department. The officials allegedly failed to exercise due diligence in verifying the accuracy of the information in the motivation for the early naturalisation of the Guptas.
MOTSOALEDI SAID THAT SOME OF THESE PERMITS HAD BEEN GRANTED UNDER DUBIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES