‘Complete overhaul needed,’ says Motsoaledi on SA’s immigration system

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi says a complete overhaul is needed regarding South Africa’s immigration system.

Delivering the Department of Home Affairs’ budget during Parliament’s mini plenary vote meeting on Tuesday, Motsoaledi labelled the country’s immigration issues as an “elephant in the room”.

“I don’t have to outline what is taking place on in our country about this problem. It is a crisis that we are well aware of, however, if I were to start to outline what we need to do, it will need its own budget speech,” he said.

“[We have decided on] a complete overhaul of the immigration system of the country. I can assure you that work in this regard has well started and we will soon unveil it,” the minister added.

Motsoaledi revealed that the implementation of the newly established Border Management Authority was underway, adding that 200 border guards have been recruited.

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The minister said Home Affairs’ counter corruption unit, which consists of 13 members, has been making significant progress to combat illegal activities.

“It’s a testimony of why we need a complete overhaul of the immigration system in South Africa. In the coming weeks, we will continue to arrest more and more people, both foreign nationals and South Africans involved in passports fraud and other forms of identity theft as well as corruption.”

He also said South Africans have been reporting where fraudulent and corrupt activities have been taking place across the country on a daily basis.

“We are hitting the call, we are going there, we are investigating and we are making progress,” the minister said.

More than 25 suspects were arrested in March for alleged fraud, corruption, contravention of the Immigration Act and possession of suspected fraudulent documents.

The suspects were arrested at the Home Affairs office in Krugersdorp, following intelligence received regarding the fraudulent passport allegations countrywide.

According to Motsoaledi, the arrested kingpin and his syndicate had been operating in South Africa’s six provinces, excluding the Northern Cape, Free State and North West.

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The scam was allegedly mostly done by Pakistani and Somali citizens.

Since the start of the year, Operation Dudula has been targeting illegal and undocumented migrants in areas with a high density of foreigners in South Africa.

The movement, led by Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini, has been accused of stoking xenophobic sentiments over its claims that illegal immigrants are behind the country’s high unemployment rate and crime levels.