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20-08-2024 News 24

While Schreiber wants to bring dignity to Home Affairs, xenophobia rears its head in budget debate

� Several parties represented in Parliament blamed undocumented migrants for crime and draining social services during the debate on the Department of Home Affairs` budget.
� Claims undocumented migrants are disproportionately responsible for crime or are depleting South African taxes without contributing, have previously been debunked.
� New Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said he wanted to bring dignity back to the department`s work.
While new Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber`s focus was on improving the department to provide dignity to South Africans, xenophobia reared its head as MPs debated the Department of Home Affairs budget vote on Monday.
The debate descended into scapegoating foreign nationals for crime and depleting resources, akin to a Trump or Le Pen rally.
`At its heart, home affairs is about dignity. The dignity of having an identity and a nationality. The dignity of belonging somewhere in this great big world. The dignity of being able to travel beyond our borders,` said Schreiber to a mini-plenary of the National Assembly.
`The dignity of giving your child their name on a birth certificate. The dignity of being able to have a bank account and to access an old age pension.
`As your newly-appointed minister of home affairs, I not only recognise and acknowledge that dignity is at the heart of this department.
`I will also make it my mission to restore dignity to interactions with home affairs, both for the many dedicated officials who have found their calling by serving the people of South Africa through this vital department, and to our clients.`
He added there was nothing that brought dignity like a job, and that was why they were positioning home affairs as `an engine of economic growth`.
`The apex priority of the government of national unity, as captured in our shared statement of intent, is to generate rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth to create jobs. Home Affairs has a critical role to play in achieving this vision, by accelerating the reforms introduced by the president through Operation Vulindlela.
`Alongside steps that have already been taken, such as the streamlining of required documents and the introduction of the Trusted Employer Scheme, we will do much more.
`This includes finalisation of the points-based system for work visas, rolling out the remote working and start-up visas, updating the critical skills list more regularly, and making it easier for more tourists to visit our beautiful country and spend their valuable foreign currency right here in South Africa,` said Schreiber.
He added the Border Management Authority (BMA), like the department, was underfunded.
He said:
If we want to properly manage our borders, we will have to invest more resources in doing so.
Several other speakers, including ANC MP and Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs chairperson Mosa Chabane, and the DA`s Adrian Roos, also lamented the BMA`s funding.
Chabane said it was the committee`s responsibility to advocate for the BMA`s funding.
There was also general agreement South Africa`s borders should be secured.
However, several MPs claimed undocumented migrants were responsible for crime and South Africans` unemployment and draining social services.
None of these MPs substantiated their claims with factual evidence.
Last year, AfricaCheck debunked claims undocumented immigrants contributed disproportionately to South Africa`s crime levels, or drained South African taxes without contributing in turn.
It also found `compelling long-term data to show that immigrants in fact create employment for locals and help grow the economy`.
In the run-up to the elections, Human Rights Watch warned South African politicians risked inflaming xenophobic violence by scapegoating and demonising foreign nationals.
On Monday morning, MK Party MP Mariam Muhammad greeted the mini-plenary in the name of Allah and `the father of our nation, the rightful president of our nation, ubaba Jacob Zuma`.
The corruption-accused Zuma has already served two terms as president and, therefore, cannot serve another. Furthermore, he is ineligible to serve as an MP, from which the president is elected, on account of being a convicted criminal.
Muhammad claimed there are `rampant abuses in our refugee and asylum system`.
`South Africa`s current legislative framework compromising the Citizenship Act, Immigration Act and Refugee Act is fragmented and outdated,` she said.
Muhammad claimed a `disproportionately large number of refugees seeking refugee here` were `overwhelming our capacity as a developing country`.
`South Africa has garnered a reputation for its generosity to immigrants, asylees and refugees.
`However, this generosity has come at a significant cost. Our asylum system is being exploited by individuals, finding fraudulent claims to gain entry into South Africa.
`The courts frequently issue rulings that protect illegal immigrants while foreign-funded NGOs politicise immigration reform and challenge our legislation.`
She said the MK Party advocated for the `mandatory detention of immigrants seeking asylum until their claims are verified` and added `parole from detention should only be granted in exception circumstances`.
EFF MP Yazini Tetyana referred to Schreiber`s decision on his first day in office to extend the temporary concession for foreign nationals who are currently awaiting the outcome of visa, waiver and appeal applications.
`On his first day in office, he resolved romantic affairs instead of long problematic issues,` he said.
`We have a serious problem, particularly here in Cape Town, of European immigrants who have entered the country on visitors visas and then overstay their visas, just like those who arrived in 1652 and never left.
`They are contributing towards the high cost of living, driving up rental accommodation prices, as they are seen to be more preferred than locals, because they pay in dollars and euros,` Tetyana added.
IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe said her party believed the previous administration`s failure to effectively manage migration led to a `national crisis posing a national security threat to our nation but also placing a heavy strain on our state`s resources` and it led to communities in northern KwaZulu-Natal being `constantly and daily under siege`.
`South Africans are tired of the lawlessness that prevails in our country.`
She added in a country where unemployment was at crisis levels, it was unforgivable businesses were `allowed` to employ undocumented migrants in sectors such as hospitality, construction and transport.
Van der Merwe, too, claimed far too many economic migrants were using the asylum seeker process.
She said the government should ban businesses employing undocumented migrants, as fines did not work.
She added:
We should reserve the spaza shop sector for South Africans.
ActionSA MP Lerato Ngobeni said she hoped Schreiber took `the widespread mismanagement and corruption that have plagued the Department of Home Affairs seriously`.
`These have allowed criminal elements to exploit the legal visa regime, contributing to the problem of illicit drugs and goods in our country.
`Whether we are called sellouts or xenophobes, we stand firm in our commitment to upholding the rule of law, protecting our porous borders and safeguarding the wellbeing of our citizens.
`South Africans must not be intimidated into backing down on this issue. All those who call us xenophobic are bullies who are unpatriotic and want to impose hypocritical standards on us.
`Our country is facing massive socioeconomic troubles and cannot be expected to take on the challenges of other countries at mass scale,` Ngobeni said.
`Increased criminality and decreased wages, the impact is felt by the most vulnerable among us, including genuine asylum seekers.
`Unchecked migration poses a severe threat to our national security and sovereignty. Being tough in our stance on this does not mean we do not recognise the human side to this issue.`
Like Van der Merwe, and ATM leader Vuyolwethu Zungula, Ngobeni said spaza shops must be reserved for South Africans.
Zungula added `securing the borders, reduction of unemployment and putting South Africa first` was in the country`s best interests, saying extending the visa concessions was not in the interest of South Africa.
`People can`t be permanently employed on workers` visas.
`The rise of the influx of what is termed digital nomads, meaning foreigners from Europe and America, has led to gentrification and pushing out citizens,` said Zungula.
`The crisis of illegal immigration is a national security risk.`
FF Plus MP Philip van Staden added South Africa`s borders must be protected.
`Immigration is a natural process and every country tries to manage it in such a way that it is beneficial,` he said.
`These illegal immigrants put immense pressure on the water resources, health care, job
Responding to the comments on refugees and asylum seekers, Schreiber said: `There`s also a global responsibility to this. And migration is an international phenomenon, and it has international consequences if South Africa loses control over our migration management.
`In the interest of the global community to help us get the capacity we need to process that massive backlog that one report estimated would take something like 60 years to process.`
He added he found some of Tetyana`s remarks confusing, as his party leader, Julius Malema, told the radio station 702 in 2019, `that thing of borders, we will not have them`.
`Now, I must say chair, I don`t agree with the EFF whatsoever, we must have borders. We must secure them. And if there is hypocrisy, we`ll find it on that side of the House,` said Schreiber.
The PA, which campaigned on a xenophobic platform in the run-up to the elections, calling for the mass deportation of immigrants and job reservation for South Africans, did not participate in the debate.
Tetyana also complained of the `pernicious role of white billionaires in Stellenbosch who are on a clear mission to capture our political system and subverting our democracy by pumping millions of rand to fund certain political parties and establishment of new ones`.
`This is reflected in the report published by My Vote Counts, which revealed the Stellenbosch mafia spent over R300 million in the past election, and the DA received most of the funding,` he said.
He added in 2017, the ANC `installed a Manchurian candidate who was raised and groomed by white businesses`.
Schreiber agreed they should look into party funding.
Amid howling from the EFF benches, he said: `The question we need to ask is where is the EFF`s declaration of the VBS money. Where are the declarations?`

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Court rules in favour of traditional wife and nullifies civil marriage

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