Our weekly briefing today will concentrate on three issues affecting the Department of Home Affairs. These include the successful conclusion of the local government elections, the closure of the Home Affairs Refugee Centre located in Crown Mines, Johannesburg as well as arrests of a number of Home Affairs officials for fraud and corruption.
Local government elections
The successful conclusion of the fourth democratic elections last week sends a positive message in the country, the region and indeed the world about the stability and strength of our democratic institutions. We are proud as Home Affairs to have contributed immensely to the success of these elections.
In this regard, we opened our offices to offer services to the public both during the registration weekends and on the day of the elections Wednesday, 18 May 2011. Furthermore we deployed mobile units to areas where the department does not have a footprint.
With respect to the issuance of identity documents (IDs) and Temporary Identity Certificates, the departmentincreased its capacity to print IDs through the Government Printing Works resulting in the ability of the department to print over 300 000 IDs in a fortnight, (usually produced in a month). Between 13 April and 15 May over 240 000 ID’s were issued to the public.
The highest recorded number was the issuance of over 20 000 ID’s on the day of elections to enable the public to exercise their democratic right to vote. The challenge, however, remains the need to mobilise our people to collect ID’s that lie in offices across the country.
This overall performance was made possible by the huge sacrifices that our staff made in working 12 hours on the day of elections and during the registration weekends. In this regard, Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma extends her gratitude to all those Home Affairs officials who contributed their time for the common good of the country.
Closure of Crown Mines in Johannesburg
The Refugee Centre in Crown Mines, Johannesburg will cease operations with effect from 1 June 2011. This is a consequence of a judgment handed down by the South Gauteng High Court in March this year.
The judgment was a result of a challenge by the business community in the area to the existence of the Refugee Centre on the basis of what they considered “an extreme nuisance and irritation factor” caused by the large presence of refugees and/or asylum seekers in the area. The businesses complained that the refugees and asylum seekers misbehave, litter, defacate in public, create a traffic hazard and render conditions intolerable for business.
The court ordered thus that the department relocate the refugee centre to a different area somewhere in Johannesburg.In this regard, the department has decided to relocate and transfer the operations of the Crown Mines Refugee Centre to the Refugee Reception Centre, located at the Pretoria Show-Grounds, Soutter Street in Pretoria West.
However, the department is of the view that the long term solution to these public complaints lies in the possible establishment of asylum/refugee reception centres along the border areas near ports of entry administered by the Department of Home Affairs. The department is currently considering this and other options. Once internal processes have been finalised and a decision reached with the concurrence of the Cabinet, Minister Dlamini Zuma will indeed communicate such a decision to the public.
Arrests of Home Affairs officials for fraud and corruption
In an ongoing attempt to push back the frontiers of fraud and corruption, the Department’s Anti-Corruption Unit working in collaboration with the South African Police Services’Hawks Unit; have over the past two weeks effected arrests of a number of Home Affairs officials allegedly for involvement in acts of fraud and corruption. These arrests took place at Oliver Tambo International Airport, Grahamstown, Mount Frere and Durban. The arrests were as follows: four at OR Tambo Airport in Johannseburg; five in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, two in Mount Frere and one in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape.
Three immigration officers in OR Tambo Airport were arrested for facilitating illegal entry and stay of foreign immigrants in South Africa while the fourth allegedly took a bribe of a thousand rand from a foreign national to facilitate illegal entry into South Africa without the necessary yellow fever certificate.
In Durban, five officials were arrested, alongside a local priest, while another official was arrested in Grahamstown for allegedly registering hundreds of fraudulent marriages involving foreign nationals and South African citizens.
Both the Hawks and the Home Affairs Anti-Corruption Unit are currently involved in an analysis of all marriages registered by these officials with a view to determining the actual number of fraudulent marriages these officials might have facilitated.
In Mount Frere, two officials were arrested after allegedly and illegally issuing a marriage certificate to a deceased person.
The arrests of these officials in Johannesburg, Durban, Mount Frere and Grahamstown, again sends a positive message that the government will leave no stone unturned to ensure those involved in such criminal activities face the full might of the law.
Yet the anti-corruption campaign can only succeed to the extent to which the citizenry assists the law enforcement agencies with information leading to the arrests of such culprits. Equally, the continuing complicity of some citizens in arranged fraudulent marriages to help facilitate the entry and illegal stay of foreign national’s remains, a matter of serious concern and will continue to receive the attention of our law enforcement agencies. Those implicated must surely know that they will ultimately be brought to justice.
As part of this crusade, the department is in a process of finalising arrangements for the hosting of a national anti-corruption summit, involving all sectors of our society- government, business, labour and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to be held later in the year. We believe the summit will help give impetus to existing efforts by the department and law enforcement agencies to rid our society of the cancer of fraud and corruption.
Enquiries:Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
