These are examples that form part of an application brought by the
Centre for Child Law, Phakamisa High School and 37 children �`
represented by the Legal Resources Centre �` against the department
of basic education (DBE), the Eastern Cape department of education
and the department of home affairs.
The application comes after a 2016 decision by the provincial
department of education to issue a circular to schools that said
that funding for the purchases of learner support materials, such
as textbooks and desks, and the allocation of teachers and funding
for the school nutrition programme, would be based on the number
of learners who have either a valid identity document, passport
number, or asylum permit number.
This forced some schools to expel undocumented learners, or not to
admit them.
The papers were filed at the Makhanda high court in 2017 and the
case was heard this week.
The Centre for Child Law wants the decision communicated by the
circular to be reviewed and set aside. It argues that it violates
the chilren’s rights to a basic education, to have their best
interests considered paramount and to have their dignity
respected.
In the founding affidavit, the deputy director of the centre,
Karabo Ozah, states that, since April 2016, funding for school
nutrition has only been allocated for learners with the relevant
documentation.
It goes on to say that, in November 2016, schools were also
allocated teachers based on the number of learners with the
required documentation �` and not the actual number of learners at
the schools.
Ozah argues that, although most people are registered with the
department of home affairs when they are born, in some cases
parents or guardians fail to register the birth of a child for
multiple reasons out of their control.
“It is a problem which disproportionately affects poor black
learners and learners in rural communities where they are often
left with family members while their parents take up employment in
bigger towns or cities. These learners are also affected by the
high prevalence of HIV/Aids in rural communities and are often
left orphaned at a young age,” reads the affidavit.
In the opposing affidavit, the deputy director general of
planning, information and assessment in the department of basic
education, Shunmugam Govindasamy Padayachee, argues that the
relief sought by the applicants is “wide-ranging and they will
effectively render the DBE ineffective in terms of control,
funding, administration and discharging its constitutional
obligation to render basic education”.
Padayachee says this is because the decision about the documents
was taken for purposes of controlling and

improving administration
in the department.
He further argued that, should the court agree to what the
application seeks to achieve, it would hamper and prejudice the
administrative affairs of the department.
According to the opposing affidavit, the decision by the
provincial department was approved and adopted by the council of
education ministers (CEM) �` the council is formed by the nine MECs
of education and the minister of basic education.
The main rationale behind the decision was to ensure compliance
with the admissions policy, which stipulates that new learners
must supply birth certificates upon registration. The affidavit
also said the decision would ensure that all learners in the
sector are accounted for, which would stop any waste of state
resources.
In the affidavit, Padayachee says: “The decision by the CEM was
taken after the DBE sector had discovered a number of loopholes in
the provincial education departments and schools’ learner numbers
reporting systems.”
He says an example of this is learners who are registered but
cannot be accounted for �` the so-called “ghost” learners.
Padayachee also states that, in the period between April and
November after the decision was made, 85 000 ghost learners,
learners with duplicated IDs and learners who were unaccounted for
were found in the province. This led to savings of about R1.4-
billion in the Eastern Cape alone.
In the affidavit, he also denies that the provincial department
had failed to provide teachers, school nutrition, desks, chairs,
textbooks, stationery and funding to learners without valid ID
numbers, passports or permits.
Before children can attend school, they need their documents.
(Madelene Cronje/M&G)
Last week, the South African Human Rights Commission issued a
position paper on access to basic education for undocumented
learners in the country.
In the paper, the commission makes several recommendations. These
include that the basic education department must issue a directive
that no learner may be denied admission to school because they
have no documentation �` or threatened with removal from school
because they have no documentation.
The commission also says that circulars directing schools not to
admit undocumented learners must be recalled.
It expects the department of basic education to provide it with a
comprehensive report within three months with the measures it is
going to implement in relation to its recommendations.
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There are fears that more people will be separated by the introduction of a minimum salary level for those wanting UK family visas. Families living in the UK and abroad have raised concerns about what new rules will mean for them as they try to reunite with foreign spouses. In December, the Home Office, which says migration to the UK is too high, announced a package of measures to reduce net migration, following a spike in arrival numbers. V.5318
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An Ethiopian asylum seeker, who does not speak English, claims he was duped by a senior immigration official into paying an admission of guilt fine when he thought he was paying for bail.Two Western Cape High Court judges have condemned the official`s `deplorable` behaviour, set aside the fine, and ordered the immigration official be taken off the case. Tsegaye Esyas claims Annelise van Dyk treated him like an animal which led to him attempt suicide while in police cells. V.5320
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EREMY MAGGS: I want to stay with crime now. Individuals with a criminal record may be faced with significant challenges when seeking employment, I think that’s a given. Here in South Africa, employers may legally exclude an applicant from consideration for a position if having a clean criminal record is what is termed an inherent requirement of the job. That phrase, inherent requirement, is important, but what exactly does that mean, and when can an applicant be lawfully excluded for having a criminal record? V.5321
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As a South African who has adopted a nomadic work lifestyle alongside my wife, Ingrid Lotze, I’ve been an interested observer of South Africa’s snail-pace digital nomad visa (DNV) development process. Despite the optimism surrounding its introduction, the visa seems to miss several crucial marks for digital nomads like us. V.5322
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DA MP says hours lost continue to result in persons being unable to collect their ID documents due to unmanageable queues The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. V.5314
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Home Affairs’ seemingly endless court battles set the department back more than R110-million between April 2023 and the end of February this year. This was revealed in a written parliamentary response by minister Aaron Motsoaledi. He said the department accumulated a litigation bill of R117 692 996.3, higher than the R72 637 944.51 spent the year before. V.5315
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Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) this week revealed that Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) has achieved a ground-breaking milestone by processing more than 10 million passengers over a single financial year. This is the highest number of regional and international passengers processed since COVID-19 V.5316
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In recent years, South Africa has seen a significant influx of immigrants from various African countries, as well as other parts of the world. This has raised important questions about the country`s immigration policies and their impact on job creation for both locals and immigrants. The South African immigration system, like many other countries, is a complex and ever-evolving process that aims to balance the country`s economic needs with its social and cultural interests. Let`s take a closer look at how this system intersects with job creation in South Africa. The South African government implemented the Immigration Act of 2002, which outlines the country`s immigration policies and procedures. Under this act, foreigners are required to obtain a visa or permit to enter, work, or study in South Africa. The type of visa or permit required depends on the intended purpose of the individual`s visit and their country of origin. V.5312
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Due to system downtime and load-shedding, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) lost nearly 141,000 hours of Smart ID application and production time between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this figure in a recent response to questions raised in Parliament by Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos. Motsoaledi provided a breakdown of smart ID production and application hours lost to technical difficulties and load-shedding per province for each financial year from 2019/2020. These disruptions hit home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape the hardest, with over 34,000 hours to rotational power cuts and system downtime. Mpumalanga offices lost the next-highest number of hours at 17 V.5313
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Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has said the public has shown great support for the final White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection which appeared in the Government Gazette on Wednesday. Briefing the media, he addressed what he saw as a long-overdue need to replace an outdated Citizenship Act, as well as enact proposed changes to existing legislation. V.5306
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