Budget vote - Home Affairs to review all permits issued to foreigners since 2004
In an effort to fight immigration corruption and fraud, the Department of Home Affairs is reviewing all permits issued to foreign nationals based in South Africa since 2004, the year the Immigration Act came into effect. These plans were announced by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, when he tabled the department’s budget vote statement in a mini-plenary of the National Assembly (NA) recently, writes Sakhile Mokoena.
Dr Motsoaledi said: “I have put up a ministerial committee headed by the former Director-General in the Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi, to review all the permits issued since 2004, the year the Immigration Act came into effect.”
The review will include permanent residential permits; corporate, business and professional visas; retired persons’ visas and early naturalisation and study visas.
He told the mini-plenary that the department has many initiatives in the pipeline, including legislative and policy initiatives that will soon come to Parliament for processing and enactment into laws. “Among these is the recently released Green Paper on marriage policy. It is an incontestable fact that this country needs a new marriage policy based on the three pillars of our Constitution, that is, equality, non-discrimination and human dignity,” he added.
Currently, South Africa citizens have to choose between three Acts of Parliament and decide under which to get married. These are the Marriage Act 25 of 1961, the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 20 of 1998 or the Civil Union Act 17 of 2006 (which provides for same-sex marriages).
According to Dr Motsoaledi, these Acts have many gaps, omissions and weaknesses. In addition, they do not cater or give recognition to Muslim marriages, Hindu marriages and marriages conducted according to Jewish rites.
Despite the enactment of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act by Parliament, the Minister added, traditional marriages taking place in many royal families in terms of their traditions and rituals are still not on the statute books. “None of the existing laws prevent minor children from getting married. Hence a
girl below the age of 18 and a boy below 17 can legally get married as long as their parents are prepared to send them off to such illconceived marriages,” he said.
Dr Motsoaledi also provided an update on the newly established Border Management Agency (BMA). He told the Members of Parliament (MPs) that it was expected to be operational in 11 border posts and segments of the borderline by the end of the current financial year.
Mr Mosa Chabane, who serves on the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, welcomed the department’s initiatives to formulate legislation and policy on marriages, as well as the planned overhaul of immigration laws. He said the immigration affairs and the asylum status regulation were the most improved branches of the Department of Home Affairs.
Another Member of Parliament, Ms Thembisile Khanyile of the Democratic Alliance (DA), also welcomed the establishment of the BMA. She was concerned, however, that the budget was “silent on how the department was going to deal with porous borders”. She cited the case of Prophet Shepherd Bushiri who mysteriously left the country illegally, and the January stampede at the Beitbridge and Lebombo border posts.
Mr Mgcini Tshwaku of the Economic Freedom Fighters labelled the Department of Home Affairs “the most dysfunctional department in the country” due to “incompetent leadership”. Mr Tshwaku was concerned that the budget does not address plans to address the long queues at Home Affairs offices, and the information and technology system that is perpetually off-line.