Dear Editor
Last week, the DA conducted a series of oversight inspections to various Home Affairs offices in Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
Please see photos here, here and here.
Invariably, we found much of the same problems as we have highlighted on previous oversight visits – hours-long queues where people are expected to wait come rain or sunshine; offices which cannot operate due to failure to pay municipalities; biometric systems that have been broken since January; and systemic errors due to network failure.
The problems the DA encountered in Nigel, Springs and Balfour are blueprints of Home Affairs offices all over the country. The failures by the Department of Home Affairs have serious consequences. Children are unable to register for schools, adults and elders are unable to access their social grants, and immigrants risk the legality of their stay in South Africa – often through no fault of their own.
The consequences can even be deadly. Fueled by populist propaganda from callous politicians and leaders, immigrants are being blamed for the systemic failures of the ANC government. Unchecked xenophobic rants are spread as gospel, leaving those in poor and vulnerable communities believing that all foreigners are criminals who steal their jobs, and everything else.
This has already lead to the horrific death of Elvis Nyathi by a mob in Diepsloot.
In his open letter to the public today, President Cyril Ramaphosa warns against xenophobia and South Africans taking the law into their own hands. Yet, if the President is serious about the plight of foreigners in South Africa, he should as a matter of urgency ensure that the systemic problems at Home Affairs offices across the country are addressed. He must summon the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, and demand that the Department once and for all addresses the failures and inefficiency that now directly lead to the undermining of the rule of law, violence and chaos. Words alone are not good enough. It is now time for action to stop the violence in our communities.
Utterances by the likes of Actions SA leader Herman Mashaba, EFF-leader Julius Malema and Nhlanhla Lux from Operation Dudula, have convinced desperate South Africans that the economic implosion and rising unemployment is not because the ANC government and their comrades robbed the country blind while allowing infrastructure to crumble, but because foreign nationals have dared to make a home on South African soil.
Mashaba, for instance, often states unsubstantiated ‘facts’ about undocumented migrants. In 2020, he tweeted that South Africa had 15 million undocumented migrants – a fact Africa Check disputed: “According to Stats SA, the number of foreign-born people living in South Africa in 2020 is around 3.9 million. This includes both the documented and undocumented. The UN population division put the number at 4.2 million in 2019.”
The DA will not stand for this perilous, irrational rhetoric. Leaders who continue to fuel violence and hatred from the safety of their high security homes and VIP protection, have blood on their hands. Elvis Nyathi’s senseless death must be a call to clarity. Let us fight the true instigators and perpetuators of poverty – a corrupt ANC government who would rather let innocent people suffer and die brutally than punish even one thieving comrade.
Regards
Angel Khanyile MP
DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs
