MPs whinge about the need for a meeting

MPS VOICED their disappointment yesterday that a meeting had to be convened to attend to the failure of Home Affairs and the City of Johannesburg to resolve their differences on illegal immigration-related issues.

This was at a joint meeting of the portfolio committees of home affairs and local government and traditional affairs, which heard presentations from the City of Johannesburg, Home Affairs, the City of Ekurhuleni and the SA Local Government Association.

The meeting was convened after a request from City of Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, who said he had tried to engage with five ministers over three years on the illegal immigrant crisis in the metro, and that his efforts were mostly ignored.

The metro is placing the blame for its illegal immigrant crisis squarely on Home Affairs, which it said had failed in its constitutional obligations.

At the meeting, MPs noted the crisis of undocumented foreigners and that the matter needed the involvement of all stakeholders.

But ANC MPs used the opportunity to taunt Mashaba for being a “cry baby”. The ANC’s Pretty Xaba said Mashaba always complained about Home Affairs whenever a new minister was deployed there. “You cry about Home Affairs whoever the minister is. You are a cry baby all the time. I don’t know when you will stop crying,” Xaba said, to laughter.

She added that the matter of illegal immigrants needed the input of the security cluster and not only Home Affairs.

The ANC’s Desmond Moela said they were aware of challenges in the department that needed to be attended to as a matter of urgency.