Comments by Minister Dlamini Zuma
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media
Basically what we are doing, it is not just us here, there are other teams operating in Pretoria, is to assess how the documentation of Zimbabweans is proceeding so we can unlock any bottlenecks since we are approaching the end of this process.
Basically, what we have done is to say that everyone who has a passport, has a job, is at school, studying, is doing something, must come and apply for the relevant permits – work, study or business. That process has gone relatively well but we realised, in the middle of it, that many Zimbabweans have applied for passports from their government but have not yet received them. Because we were monitoring this process very closely, we then said that if you have applied for a passport, but not yet received it, come in and apply but attach the receipt for your application because applicants are issued with receipts. We have said it is fine if your passport has not arrived, but attach your receipt. As you can see, many people who are applying now do not have passports but are bringing their receipts. We are then making copies of this and attaching them to the applications. As soon as they receive their passports, they will bring it to us.
We also found another thing that was creating some of the backlog was the fingerprinting and security clearance issue. We have now said that people must just apply and we will call them in at regular intervals, since many are still awaiting their passports anyway, to come in and we can take their fingerprints. One of the things we do check is a police record before we can issue a permit. This was creating a bit of a bottleneck but we have cleared this now.
We also found that many were applying for asylum since it was the only way they could remain in South Africa.We therefore have these fingerprints on record if applicants were initially asylum seekers. We have cleared this.
The last hurdle which we have dealt with, it seems that in the Zimbabwean consulate, especially the one in Edenvale, there is a big backlog of passports who want to apply but are not being processed quickly enough in any day. We have then said that some with IDs or birth certificates, who are waiting to apply, they can fill in their applicants and attach these copies. We have cleared this.
We are then left with a peculiar group who say they do not have any form of identification since they left Zimbabwe without anything; all they know is their ID numbers. We have said they must email us a list of such people with their ID numbers and we will interact with the Zimbabwean government to verify such details and ensure they receive their documents.
So, we think that at this point in time, there really is no need to extend the deadline.We are not extending the deadline for receiving applications but obviously, we are not going to begin deporting Zimbabwean nationals on 1 January 2011. We will wait until all the back office work is completed and all those who are awaiting documents have received them and we have concluded all the processing. We will only conclude the receiving of applications on 31 December but there will be no deportations until all processes in the back offices are concluded.
I will now take your questions.
Questions and Answers
Question: Minister, what are the exact numbers that have applied, been rejected?
Answer: (DDG Jackie McKay) Up to Tuesday 21 December 2010, we have received 127564 applications of which 42191 have been adjudicated and those rejected number 10844. Those rejected have the right to appeal because applications may have been rejected due to outstanding documents. Applicants will be advised of the reason for rejection and they will be able to appeal the decision.
(Minister Dlamini Zuma) Those rejected are currently in the process of appealing. In some cases the employer had not written a letter or something like this. Some of the applicants have already submitted their documents. But until we finish the appeal process we will not be certain about the numbers that have been rejected.
Question: Minister, could you not have foreseen some of these challenges much earlier on. I know that some human rights groups advised against the deadline of the 31 December. Media did advise your department that the consulate in Cape Town had closed. There is also a serious challenge of people having to submit tax clearance certificates.
Answer: I am not sure what you mean when you ask if we could not have foreseen the problems. We have seen the challenges and have therefore put in place these solutions even before the 31 December.
So, I am not sure what your question means.
We did not know how many people did not have passports nor the challenges the Zimbabwean government had in producing them.But you must also remember, because I think we have short memories, this is an extended deadline and I think many of us have forgotten this. This was supposed to have taken place between April 2009 to April 2010. This agreement was concluded by the former minister, even before I assumed office at the department. Human nature is such that people did not take advantage of that year to regularise, apply for passports, it is only when the deadline of April 2010 came that we realised that people had not done so. So, this is not the original deadline. This process was planned for a whole year – April 2009 to April 2010. The process was to have been concluded during this year.
This is an extended deadline. I think we must always remember this because I hear in the media that Zimbabweans have only been given a few months. This is not so. Zimbabweans had a whole year, from April 2009 to April 2010 to accede to this process. So this is already an extended deadline.
And the problems we see now, in fact when we spoke to the Zimbabweans we were assured that all passports that had been applied for had been issued. And this was already before the World Cup. So, we were assured that we would not have a problem.
And we said, although the Zimbabwean ministers felt this was so, we should just extend the deadline so that all people could be captured.
We then found that there were many Zimbabweans who had not applied in the year from April 2009 to April 2010. So, they should have applied in 2009. There is no reason why they are applying now but even though they are only applying now, we have made these provisions to ensure they are in the system.
People are not supposed to bring tax clearances except if you are a businessperson or have a business – you are required to bring a letter from CIPRO or certificate from SARS. This is not necessary for individuals especially since many do not fall into the SARS tax paying bracket. They are earning below the tax bracket. So it is not required for them.
In some instances we did see that people were asked and this is why those who did not have it, if they have been rejected because someone in an office thought it was required, we are reviewing such rejections. This is therefore not a problem because some Zimbabweans do not fall into the tax paying bracket. But those who earn businesses and so on, of course, if you are working in a country with tax laws; you are required to abide by these.
Question: Minister, why are some of the applications being rejected?
Answer: As I have said, we are now reviewing even those we had initially rejected because sometimes, in fact, in one instance someone misunderstood and asked for not just a letter from the employer but a copy of the employer’s ID which was not submitted. I felt I would also not have provided a copy of my ID to just anyone. So, that should not have happened and we are reviewing such cases. Let us wait until we have reviewed all rejections and then we will advise you of the final numbers rejected.
Question: Minister, have you received reports of corruption during this process in any of your offices?
Answer: Surprisingly no, there were some reports in the initial stages of this process that Zimbabweans were being asked to pay R50 for application forms. When we investigated we found it was Zimbabweans who had collected a stack of forms and was now asking applicants to pay for these forms. But the Zimbabweans did not think anything of it because we found they have to pay for forms in their country.We cleared this saying these forms are free, they can be downloaded, and in fact they have no monetary value. I think this has now stopped.
But in our offices, no. I think I was talking to the PASSOP representative who was saying they have been monitoring the process in Cape Town and there has been no corruption. The only suggestion he had, which was what I was also going to suggest having been here, was to increase the number of staff.
So no, we have not encountered any incidents of corruption. I am not even sure how there could be corruption because the forms are submitted and eventually sent to the hub in Pretoria for processing. If there are rejections, we are going to review them. So no one can benefit from this process. I think there have not been incidents of corruption especially because the process does not easily lend itself to corruption and now that we have implemented these additional measures like applying with copies of receipts or IDs, there is little room for corruption.
What we have also done, not just for the Zimbabweans, but for all Home Affairs offices in general, you will notice photos of all senior managers, office and mobile numbers, beginning from the Director-General. We have done this for everyone, so if they encounter problems, they can call the relevant manager to assist them. They have a right to call the manager to check or report issues they are not happy with. We have never done this before. We have done so in the interests of transparency. Home Affairs is a department which people approach with much emotion especially related to matters of IDs, etc.. So we felt we needed to give them access to senior managers and this has assisted in many ways. I am not saying there are no problems but at least people know who to call if they are not being satisfactorily helped. We will keep these numbers on the walls. You can also let us know if certain offices do not display such information because it means they do not want the people to have access to it.
Question: Minister, some Zimbabwean people say things are going smoothly today. Is there a co-incidence because you are here today?
Answer: This is actually not true. This is what I referring to when I mentioned the PASSOP representative, Braam Hanekom. He is part of an non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a passion for this issue. He was saying he has no complaints about this office. The only thing he suggested is that we increase the number of officials because Zimbabweans are now coming in more than before. But it is not true that there is only one person, I was told this when I entered as well and although I knew this was probably not true, I said I would check.
And, for your information, we very rarely announce our visits to the offices. They normally know a few minutes before or when they see me because our media people sometimes have to invite you.
For instance, when I visited TIRRO on Monday, I said we should tell no one, not even the media. We just went there and we found they were working very well. I arrived about 10h00 and they had already processed about 400 people for that day. Of course, there were another 400 applicants waiting to be processed. So, it is not true that there is a problem with this office. Even from the civics side, it is one of the offices about which I receive very positive feedback. I know the offices which are performing well as well as those that are performing badly and we are trying to do something about this.
Question: Minister, we have seen the queues outside and the deadline is about 10 days away. What will happen to those who have not had a chance to apply?
Answer: There is no one who would not have had a chance to apply because all they are doing is to hand in their applications. We are not even taking their fingerprints. We are not turning anyone away, especially if they have applications to hand in.
Everyone who wants to come to be processed will be processed. Their applications will be received because as I have said we are not processing forms here, just receiving application forms. So everyone with an application form will be assisted. So we are positive that everyone who has come to our offices will have their applications received. Receipt of applications does not take long; it is the processing of these applications that will take long. Since about 10 days ago we have said that all applications should be received.
Question: Minister, those people who are undocumented – how soon do you see the deportations beginning?
Answer: I thought I had explained that – we are not deporting anyone until we have completed our back office work. But this also includes waiting for those who are waiting for their passports. Because if we begin to say people who are undocumented should be deported, and there are people who are still waiting for their passports, we will not be acting in good faith because it means someone will be arrested and they will explain they are still waiting for their passports and we do not want this. Therefore, I cannot say when this process will begin.
If this process was dependent on just us, we could say it could perhaps be completed by this time. But there are still a lot of people who have applied who are still awaiting passports. Until this process is concluded, we will not begin deportations. We will process everyone who has submitted an application. Even if an applicant is waiting for a passport we will wait. We will interact with the Zimbabweans after 31 December 2010 to see how they can expedite the process and how we can help those who have just given us numbers and so on. We will not start with the deportations until this entire process has been completed. The only thing that will stop on 31 December is the receipt of application forms.
We are really working hard on this process.We have two shifts at the hub in Pretoria where applications are being processed – one that begins at 08h00 and ends at 14h00 and another that works from 14h00 to 22h00. But we are doing it also for the entire permitting section. We are doing two eight hour shifts to try and expedite the processing of applications. This is beyond the ordinary because we want to conclude this process of permit application backlogs – Zimbabwean or any other.
Question: Minister, will offices also be open on public holidays?
Answer: No, our staff are not going on holiday. Our senior managers are not going on holiday but I think we should give them the long weekend for Christmas.
