New visa regime's astonishing link to Guptas, Parliament hears

Source: Tourism Update, 28/04/2016

New visa regime's astonishing link to Guptas, Parliament hears
Tourism Update : 22 Apr 2016
The minister of Home Affairs was grilled by the opposition in
parliament on Friday on why a Gupta-directed company was issuing
receipts for people applying for visas through VFS Global.
The Democratic Alliance`s Haniff Hoosen said Home Affairs had
appointed VFS Global to handle South African visa operations but
receipts were being issued by a company called Islandsite Investments,
whose directors include Duduzane Zuma and Rajesh Gupta.
The Democratic Alliance, which discovered the link, has called for a
full investigation.
"The Guptas have not only captured President Zuma, they have also
captured our government and now have they have captured the entire
tourism industry.
"Before any tourist even puts a foot in our country, the Guptas get
their share first. Any person in the world, who wants to travel to our
country for work, business or pleasure, must first pay their share to
the Guptas.
"Then In October 2014, the Minister announced that the permits for
approximately 250 000 documented Zimbabwean citizens who were in the
country were to be cancelled and a new special permit was then created
for them. In order for them to remain in the country, they had to
apply for this new permit. And once again, VFS was the company that
issued those permits and they scored about 300million rands from that
deal.
"You have to wonder, what was the reason for creating a new permit,
when these people were already in possession of a permit in the first
place. Well, join the dots and the picture becomes clearer.
TheMinister makes new regulations for new permits, VFS rakes in the
cash, the Guptas and the Zumas laugh their way to the bank.
"It gets even better. Now Minister Gigaba has recently announced
another new permit. This time for citizens of Lesotho. In order for
them to stay in the country, legal or illegal, they must obtain the
new Lesotho Special Permit. There are an estimate 400 000 Lesotho
citizens in the country and even more are likely to move to SA now
that there is a 4 year permit available for them to live here.
Soon there will be nobody left in Lesotho and guess who will be
processing those applications and how many more millions the Gupta`s
will be scoring.
"So the relationship is simple Minister Gigaba manufacturers new
permits and the Guptas rake in the cash.
"I want to ask you Honourable Minister, and we all know about your
cosy relationships with the Guptas, what was your role in securing
this deal for VFS? You cannot deny that you knew nothing about this,"
said Hoosen.
Minister Malusi Gigaba responded to Hoossen in Parliament, saying he
was making misleading and wild allegations.
According to the Minister, Hoosen never contacted him with regards to
the VFS contract. He said: "I don`t know about his requests. He met me
in the portfolio committee recently, he knows where my office is, he
is the shadow minister. He would have phoned or Tweeted or sent me a
message. He did none of the above. This is the first time I hear about
these requests."
Although Hoosen in his speech to Parliament never alleged that
Minister Gigaba signed the contract with VFS and merely asked what
Gigaba`s role had been in securing the deal for VFS, Minister Gigaba
said: "He (Haniff Hoosen) said I signed the VFS contract, knowing that
some would benefit. I do not take these allegations lightly. Just
because somebody says it, doesn`t make it so. The VFS was signed in
2011 when I was the minister of public enterprises and not home affairs."
Minister Gigaba went on to say: "Thirdly, he makes an allegation about
a certain company which is linked with VFS Global, which has
headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. The challenge is that Hoossen had
no argument to make about the policy debate. To digress, he chooses to
make wild allegations, abusing parliamentary privilege, knowing that
what he is doing is playing to the gallery, and making wildly
misleading remarks, that he knows he will not be able to prove."