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Dodgy permits probed

Source: The Citizen, 18/01/2021

Dodgy permits probed
ANALYST: IMMIGRATION SYSTEM HAS LOST ALL CREDIBILITY DUE TO CORRUPTION

Not worth the paper they were printed on
Review follows high-profile people investigated by dept’s corruption unit.
That Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is moving to review a raft of dodgy permits allegedly issued by corrupt officials is a welcome intervention but may be “too little, too late” to salvage the credibility of the immigration system, says a political analyst.
Vukani Kusile Foundation’s Solly Masilela said: “It will take time for the clean-up to be a success because corruption and maladministration of the immigration laws and regulations is too entrenched and linked to other departments, such as the department of international relations and cooperation. It is a step in the right direction though.”
Masilela added that the SA immigration system had taken such a knock that SA-issued documents were not worth the paper they were printed on.
Motsoaledi has received the report of the task team up in March to review some permits in a raft of categories. These include permanent residence permits and citizenship by naturalisation issued since 2004.
His office said he would make an announcement soon. The need to review the permits was triggered by a trend emerging from the outcomes of cases involving high-profile people investigated by the department’s corruption unit. In February the minister revealed that Enlightened Christian Gathering leader Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary, had been in South Africa illegally.
The unit has established that 66% of cases involved immigration permitting.
Motsoaledi has said that in November last year, during a top-level investigation, he was shocked when 14 members of the permitting section signed a petition demanding that the corruption unit stop investigating their errors.
The minister said this admission strengthened his resolve to have a more transparent permit issuing regime.
Other permits on Motsoaledi’s radar are corporate visas, business visas, professional/critical skills visas, retired person’s visas and study visas.
Last week home, a home affairs official, Democratic Republic of the Congo national Mbemba Pierre Mahinga, was dealt a blow when the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed his application to stop the department stripping him of his SA citizenship.
The 55 year old arrived in SA in 1996 as an asylum seeker but withdrew his asylum application and instead applied for a permanent permit after marrying a South African in 1999. In 2003, he got citizenship but home affairs claimed he had engaged in a marriage of convenience to this end.

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