We are indeed privileged once more to be accorded this opportunity to brief the media on the status of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) at the halfway-mark of our ongoing contribution to the successful hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
We take this opportunity to congratulate all national teams that have so far participated in the tournament in their quest to become world football champions, and in particular those national teams including Ghana who have qualified for the quarter finals of the World Cup.
In the spirit of FIFA's motto of fair play, as a country and a people including those of the rest of our continent, we wish them well as they endeavour to reach the final stage of the World Cup.
Foreign visitors
According to our immigration records, there has been an increase in the number of foreign nationals arriving into the country for the period coinciding with the hosting of the World Cup. For the period of 1 June to 29 June 2010 a total of 944 535 foreign traveller arrivals were processed at our ports of entry, marking a 24 percent increase from 760 201 in the same period in 2009.
The total number of arrivals of both foreigners and citizens for the period of 1 June to 29 June 2010 is 1 298 305 compared to 1 036 610 in 2009.
Top nationalities visiting South Africa
The top 15 nationalities visiting the country during this very period remain, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana followed by the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, The Netherlands, Zambia and Malawi.
Departing teams
Through our movement control system, launched in conjunction with the South African Revenue Services and is linked to the South African Police Services and customs, we have now facilitated the departure of 23 national teams which unfortunately did not qualify for either the last sixteen or the quarter finals of the World Cup: Greece, Nigeria, Serbia, Slovenia, New Zealand, Denmark, Italy, Korea DPR, Cote d'Ivoire, Honduras, Mexico, Switzerland, Korea Republic, USA, England, Australia, France, Cameroon, Algeria, Japan, Slovakia, Portugal and Chile.
Through the movement control system we were also able to facilitate the safe and secure movement of 24 serving and former Heads of State and Government.
Reports from home affairs airline liaison officers
Through our Airline Liaison Officers stationed in Amsterdam, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Lagos, London, Mumbai and Nairobi, a total of 180 passengers were denied entry into South Africa from 1 to 29 June for various reasons including being in possession of fraudulent permits, visa and stamps, contradictory reasons for visiting the country or having been placed on South Africa's visa and entry stop list.
Background information
Our department's work related to three main government guarantees made to FIFA, namely: the issuance of visas, work permits as well as priority treatment for the FIFA delegates, national teams and other accredited persons through our ports of entry.
To further ensure that we fulfil our commitments and guarantees to FIFA, we established seven dedicated teams that focused on dedicated express lanes at airports, temporary joint border clearance facilities at land airports, ticket/voucher validation unit, joint Home Affairs/National Intelligence Agency (NIA)/FIFA Clearance Task Team, the implementation of a movement control system (MCS) task team comprising Home Affairs/South African Revenue Service (SARS)/law enforcement agencies and the training of volunteers.
In terms of fulfilling our obligations with regard to Guarantee One (work permits), we established a FIFA Large Account Unit. To date this unit has issued 3 500 work permits.
As part of the department's commitment to deliver and meet the objectives of Guarantee Two (visas), the department issued a free event visa to spectators holding match certificates/vouchers. It is important to note that FIFA accredited persons only used their letters of accreditation to enter the country and therefore did not need an event visa. It is also important to note that in addition to the event visa, the department continued to issue normal visas to other travellers, including some of the soccer fans and spectators, especially those without match certificates/vouchers.
In order to support the effective, efficient and secure issuance of the event visa, the department established a 24 hour ticket validation unit that assisted foreign missions to authenticate and validate the match certificates/vouchers issued by FIFA.
In terms of priority treatment for the FIFA delegation, teams and other accredited persons at ports of entry (Guarantee Three), the department implemented a number of sub projects:
* Dedicated express lanes were established at OR Tambo, Cape Town and King Shaka International Airports. It is also important to note that the department has increased capacity at the Pilanesberg and Waterkloof Airports to handle former and serving Heads of State and Government.
* Co-located borders for land ports at Maseru and Ficksburg-Lesotho, Lebombo-Mozambique, Kopfontein-Botswana, Oshoek-Swaziland and Beitbridge-Zimbabwe have also been established to facilitate faster and speedy traveller clearance
* We have signed with our Mozambican counterpart, Minister of Interior; Jose Pacheco a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for joint temporary clearance. The MOU will remain in force for the duration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The objective of the agreement is to expedite the entry and exit of visitors from both countries for the duration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup through the Lebombo/Ressano Garcia Border Post. In this regard, the MOU enables both countries to co-ordinate their activities with respect to joint border clearance and the prevention and detection of offences relating to immigration controls.
We have also established a DHA/FIFA 24 hour joint clearance task team to assist travellers who may experience problems upon arrival at our immigration.
To date FIFA delegates accredited and cleared by NIA stand at 20 940 out of a total of 22 396.
An Advanced Passenger Processing (APP) system which allows us to bar undesirable elements from entering South Africa before boarding from various countries became operational on 23 November 2009. Seventy-four (74) percent of all airlines flying to South Africa are now APP compliant. The success of such cooperation is evident through the interception and deportation of ten Argentinean and British soccer hooligans over the past few weeks.
We continue to provide the necessary support for the ongoing and successful hosting of the World Cup. The systems we have put in place will remain to serve the broader interests of our country and as part of the legacy of the 2010 World Cup.
