• Staff at South Africa’s embassy in Berlin, Germany are issuing handwritten visas due to faulty printers.
• Officials also have to use private wifi routers to connect to the internet.
• In June, the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation conducted a fact-finding oversight visit to embassies in Germany and Portugal.
Diplomatic staff at South Africa’s mission in Germany, the country`s third largest trading partner, are issuing handwritten visas because printers are faulty, telephones lines are not working, and officials use private routers to connect to wifi.
In June, the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation conducted a fact-finding oversight visit on the status of the vacant state-owned properties under the management of South Africa’s embassies in Germany and Portugal.
On Friday, parties deliberated on the committee’s report during a mini-plenary session in the National Assembly.
`The mission in Berlin is faced with tools of trade not being compatible with the printers, resulting in handwritten visas; telephones not working; and officials using private routers to connect to wifi,` the committee report read.
`The committee delegation asked itself what the understanding could have been with the new service provider to make such a move in modernising ICT.
`It was said that the issues warrant urgent attention of the ministers of International Relations and Cooperation of Home Affairs.
`In the wake of many Germans being caught up in unfortunate incidents of crime in South Africa, Germany is providing support to prevent violence and for efforts to upgrade urban spaces in townships that are particularly affected by violence.`
During their visit to Germany, MPs heard that the mission in Berlin had raised a concern regarding transferred staff shortages and limited budget.
`The Mission is not able to cover all the states in Germany due to budget constraints. The Mission is constrained to do its work to its full potential due to these factors, much as Germany is a developed country, which is also the biggest trading partner with South Africa, with 72 Structured Bilateral Mechanisms (SBMs) with Germany,` the report read.
Furthermore, the report stated that the level of dilapidation in the interior of the vacant state-owned buildings in Bonn and Funchal is immeasurable, with mould everywhere, ripped flooring, ripped ceilings, graffiti on the walls, appliances stolen and basically empty shells.
`The state-owned properties in Bonn and Funchal have been neglected for more than 30 years. They are in sort after areas and they are structurally solid properties, however the State stands to lose money on disposing of them as they are. It was found mind boggling that these properties were left to rot and decay to the level where they are rendered worthless,` it said.
Parliament`s report also highlighted:
• Germany is the third largest

source of overseas tourists to South Africa after the UK and US.
• The number of German tourists declined by 86% from 322 720 in 2019 to 44 388 in 2021.
• The numbers again increased by 85% from 2021 to 81 978 during twelve-month period until the end of March 2022.
• In March 2022, South Africa received 16 362 German visitors in comparison to only 2 082 in March 2021.
• The challenges to enhance tourism from Germany to South Africa include cutting of flights between two countries, negative impact of load shedding and perceived lack of safety and security for tourists in South Africa.
• A number of German citizens have either been hijacked or killed in South Africa.
South Africa’s overseas missions have recently come under the spotlight due to several irregularities.
In October 2021, News24 reported that a fact-finding mission to New York, carried out by MPs in December 2019, had found that the piece of land meant to house South Africa`s diplomats did not exist.
The report concluded R118 million was paid on the basis of a misrepresentation to the department the estate agent had bought land to build a suitable and sustainable office building.
International Relations and Cooperation Minster Naledi Pandor once told the National Assembly that the botched R118-million project was a national embarrassment. Pandor put the department`s director-general, Kgabo Mahoai, on precautionary suspension. Mahoai was later dismissed.
Committee chairperson MP Supra Mahumapelo applauded the department for a clean audit, but stressed that existing challenges should be addressed.
`We urge that the audit action plan should be designed to address these recurring errors. We have noted that department continues to fly the SA flag high, whether it is at the United Nations or other multilateral forums. We have witnessed the strengthening of the AU and solutions for African problems,` he said.
IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said Germany was a strategic investment partner, but the telephone lines at South Africa’s embassy were not working.
`These problems lead one to think of the purpose of these embassies. It is clear that [the embassies’] are not being fulfilled,` he said.
DA MP Mergan Chetty said the committee had been misled to think that the embassies’ ICT modernisation project of migration from the old system to the new, had been completed successfully.
`Also in its recent Quarter 4 performance reporting, the Department gave a rosy picture of 100% completeness of the ICT project in the missions. Further more, we witnessed much to our disbelief, that our Consulate department in Berlin were busy issuing hand written visa documents instead of the computerised version,` he added. V.5064

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article

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
Click here for full article