In a reply to a DA Parliamentary question, Home Affairs Minister, Ayanda Dlodlo, revealed that at least 344 547 foreign nationals failed to leave South Africa before or on the date their visas were set to expire.
The reply also revealed that more than 15 million people entered the country during 2016. Thousands of them are seeking to find refuge in our country. However, without proper checks and controls, the government will not have an accurate picture of how many foreign nationals stay within our borders illegally.
If this is the case, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) will not be able to identify undocumented immigrants, and will ultimately fail to process those individuals who are eligible for a permit.
While the DHA have an Inspectorate Unit tasked with tracing persons who remain in the country illegally, the DA is concerned that the Unit might be under-resourced.
For years the DA has consistently supported greater investment in immigration services and this Parliamentary reply is exactly what the DA has been warning for a long time.
Given the scale and potential ramp in numbers, this reply is an indictment of the DHA’s deeply rooted inefficiencies to carry out its mandate which is to ensure that immigration officers at the border post execute their directive efficiently.
The DA is seriously concerned that if this is what happens in a single year, it must mean that over time, millions of people have entered the country illegally.
The DA will submit more questions to ascertain the staffing and budget of this unit as an under-resourced unit will not be able to trace 340 000 people each year.
Minister Dlodlo must show political will and re-assure the public that she will immediately resolve this unacceptable state of affairs.
Gigaba must be summoned to Home Affairs Committee over Gupta Citizenship
The DA is concerned that the Guptas received preferential citizenship from former Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba, when they did not qualify to become citizens of South Africa.
Knowing that Minister Gigaba maintains a suspiciously close relationship with the Guptas, their preferential citizenship must be explained. Gigaba must, therefore, be summoned to appear before the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs in Parliament under oath, in order to testify as to the record of decision for the Guptas’ preferential citizenship and his relationship with the Guptas.
This will allow Parliament to interrogate why the Guptas received Malusi Gigaba’s stamp of approval, despite the then-Director General refusing their application.
The overwhelming evidence of the capture of the ANC, by the Guptas, shows a mutually beneficial relationship that clearly benefitted multiple ANC ministers and leaders and opened the doors of South Africa to the Guptas, to raid and plunder the public purse.
The decision to make the Guptas citizens of South Africa, while they did not qualify, shows the lengths to which Gigaba is willing to go to please the ANC’s captors.
The DA has also uncovered that Minister Gigaba failed to properly publish in Parliament his granting of citizenship to the Guptas as is required by law. The requirement for publication in Parliament’s ATC was never complied with.
Parliament must interrogate Minister Gigaba’s inexplicable favouritism to the Guptas and if necessary must recommend a review of their citizenship.
I will, therefore, write to the Home Affairs Committee chairperson requesting that Minister Gigaba be urgently summoned to appear before the Committee.