21 September 2007
The Department of Home Affairs wishes to correct statistics in media reports
this week pertaining to an alleged massive backlog in the Head Office in
Pretoria arising from a story picked up from one of the news wires. It is
important to note that the department was not approached by the news agency to
verify the stated statistics. The department had hoped that the said 'source'
who was quoted in the media would have verified their statistic first with the
department before misleading the public.
This, particularly in the light of the recent findings of the Wits Forced
Migration Project which had uncovered that those commentators had exaggerated
statistics of Zimbabweans entering the country illegally. We wish to put it on
record that a recount of all applications at provincial offices was done in
September last year with a total number of 13 798 applications.
The Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's decision to centralise the process is
positive, since more than 10 000 of these permanent residence applications were
finalised within four months during the period 1 August 2006 until 30 November
2006. The remaining (3 798) applications were withdrawn due to incompleteness.
In other words, the backlog of 13 798 applications was eradicated.
Furthermore, there is currently a total number of 1 426 applications at Head
Office, 1 126 awaiting adjudication and 300 are appeals awaiting review. The
high volume of applications has come down due to amendments in the Immigration
Act, especially in the section 26(b) spousal category which constituted 80% of
the total number of all applications received.
Additional officials have been appointed to handle the workload and the
Information Technology Section has installed a new system to track and trace
the applications, as tracking and tracing was a concern and contributed to the
delay in finalising applications. We hope that this information will assist in
averting future misconceptions with regards to permanent residence applications
in the department.
For further information please contact:
Mr Mantshele wa ga Tau
Acting Director: External Communications
Cell: 082 802 4814
Tel: 012 810 6315
Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
21 September 2007
