Minister Naledi Pandor's address to the Home Affairs weekly media briefing, Pretoria
Let me take this opportunity to welcome you all, thank you for making time for our media briefing. Today I will focus on (i) the draft Regulations to the 2011 Immigration Amendment Act (ii) the roll-out of the Smart ID card (iii) 2014 national elections (iv) and permitting issues.
We published the Draft Immigration Regulations in the Government Gazette on 14 February 2014 and invited public comment by 28 February. We have decided to extend the public comment period for a week in response to requests. The closing date will now be Friday, 7 March 2014.
Draft Immigration Regulations, 2014
Under the current regulations there are about 14 different types of permits that cover all categories of persons wishing to enter and live in the Republic on either a temporary or permanent basis.
Under the new regulations the word “visa” replaces the word “permit” except for the permanent residence “permit”. For example, a visitor’s permit will now be called a visitor’s visa, a work permit will now be called a work visa and a study permit will be called a study visa.
This means that under the new regulations there will be a clear distinction between short-stay visas and long-stay permanent residence permits.
All applications for visas will be made at our missions by the applicants in person.
The current regulations allow travelers on a visitors or a medical permit to change their status or conditions while in the Republic.
Under the new regulations this is no longer allowed. They will have to make an application from outside the Republic.
Under the new regulations study permits will no longer have to be renewed annually as they will be issued for the duration of study.
Under the new regulations the feasibility of the prospective business venture and the benefits it would have for the South African economy will be assessed before a business visa is granted. This means that a recommendation from the Department of Trade and Industry forms part of an application.
The Act further requires that the Minister should occasionally and after consultation with the Minister of Trade and Industry gazette a list of undesirable businesses. In this way, no business visa may be issued or renewed for a business that is on the list of undesirable businesses.
Under the current regulations there are four types of work permits (quota work permit, general work permit, exceptional skills work permit and intra-company transfer work permit). Under the quota work permit, the current law requires the Minister of Home Affairs to publish in the Government Gazette the specific occupational classes and specific professional categories at least annually.
After consultation with the relevant departments and in light of the Employment Services Bill introduced in Parliament by the Minister of Labour, it was decided to repeal the quota and exceptional skills work permits, and to introduce a critical skills visa.
We have responded positively to complaints from various companies regarding the period of two years for intra-company transfer work visas in that the new regulations are proposing a period of four years.
Currently, within the list of ‘undesirable persons’, there is no inclusion of “outstanding warrants or convictions in the Republic or foreign countries” against certain persons for offences relating to human smuggling and trafficking.
The new regulations address this. The convictions for human smuggling and trafficking have now been included alongside genocide, terrorism, murder, torture, drug related charges, money laundering or kidnapping.
Currently people who overstay their permits are fined. However, this is not a strong enough deterrent. The fine is only enforced when a person applies to return to the Republic and not immediately upon detection of the over stay.
We have introduced an amendment to the effect that any person, who overstays for a particular number of days at a time, will now be listed as an undesirable person.
In sum, the new regulations will bring the Immigration Amendment Act of 2011 into force and usher in a new era of secure, efficient and sound management of international migration.
Roll out of the Smart ID Card
We thought we should use this opportunity to also give an update on the roll-out of the smart ID card.
We are happy to report that since October 2013 to date we have processed over 80 000 smart ID cards. In this regard, we are on course to meeting our target of issuing 100 000 smart ID cards by the end of the financial year – 31 March 2014.
We have also now increased the number of our offices earmarked for processing of applications from 28 to 30 across the country. It is our hope that by April we would have 70 offices ready nationally for this purpose.
We are ready to invite the elderly, 60 years old and above, born in the month of March to start applying for their smart ID cards.
We encourage those who have not collected their IDs to do so as a priority. Similarly we advise all citizens who have applied for the new Smart ID cards to visit offices of application to collect them. At this stage we already have a total of 16,541 uncollected smart ID cards in our offices and of these 2,062 have not provided the department with contact details.
In this context, we wish to inform the public that it takes 10 days only to process a smart ID card application and delivery to the applicant. Citizens are therefore urged to respond positively to sms messages from the department urging them to collect their smart ID cards.
Elections 2014
Remember the current green bar-coded IDs, smart ID cards and Temporary Identity Certificates will be accepted by the IEC as legal forms of identity.
We call on all people to participate in the forthcoming national elections to choose a government of their choice and as part of efforts aimed at the consolidation and strengthening of the gains we have made during the 20 years of peace, freedom and democracy.
State of permitting
Our challenges in this area have included the need to address backlogs in applications and ensure smooth processing of applications to protect our system from abuse.
Permanent Residence
The DHA has successfully tackled the permanent residence backlog from 2009 to 2013 through the Permanent Residence Backlog Project. The project was able to finalise 25 381 PR applications between September and December 2013.
Although the project was successful, there are still applications that the department is finalising as part of a mop-up operation to clean all applications that were lodged before May 2013. We ask clients who are affected to approach the department for finalisation of their outstanding permanent residence applications which fall in the period before May 2013.
As a measure to sustain the success of the Permanent Residence Backlog Project, the department is presently working on recent applications from June 2013 onwards, to avoid any future backlogs. Although more capacity is required within permanent residence, there are 20 fulltime adjudicators employed to specifically manage this environment.
The department will incrementally provide capacity in order to adequately manage permanent residence. I have also instructed the separation of permanent from temporary residence management, including adjudication.
Temporary Residence
As a result of the upgrade of the Track& Trace system in June 2013, temporary residence was negatively affected. Applications were adjudicated but they could not be issued out to provinces. The department has cleared these applications in January 2014. I have instructed the Immigration Service Branch to earnestly work on the temporary residence project to stabilise this area same as the permanent residence area.
I will be closely monitoring the performance of this area, and I have withdrawn the Directive 43 of 2010. This Directive allowed foreigner nationals to leave the country on expired permits using proof of application. This practice was illegal and it encouraged a lethargic approach to the adjudication of temporary residence.
On this note I thank you and I am ready to field your questions.
