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GIGABA HAS SO MUCH TO #SAYSORRY4

Source: Lawyers for Human Rights, 16/10/2016

In a front page exposé in the Pretoria News on 13 October 2016,
Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, asked for forgiveness from
"ordinary citizens" at the Centurion Home Affairs office for lengthy
queues, poor communication and lack of professionalism. While this
photo opportunity no doubt revealed real problems at one particular
office, Minister Gigaba has so much more to apologise for.

On Sunday 11 September 2016, the Minister visited the Marabastad
Refugee Reception Office to inspect the new paperless systems being
put in place at that office. Sunday is not a business day at the
centre so there were no clients to apologise too. Although not
citizens, one wonders if the Minister would have felt the need to seek
forgiveness for the absolute collapse of the refugee system in South
Africa and the false impressions of abiding by international law he
made to the United Nations in New York and Geneva last month.

Instead of heaping praise on a broken Home Affairs, Gigaba should say
sorry for:

• The breakdown of systems at the Marabastad refugee office (the
largest in South Africa) since June. Similar to Mr Mkhize`s passing
the buck onto Telkom for Centurion, these system failures have been
blamed on everything from a failure of software to cables being
stolen. The office is still not fully operational;

• The continued closure of refugee reception offices and the failure
to abide by court orders to re-introduce services in Cape Town, Port
Elizabeth and Johannesburg, causing thousands of asylum seekers to
criss-cross the country looking for open offices to renew
permits;

• The complete collapse of the Refugee Appeal Board meaning that
almost no appeals have been heard for over a year, causing asylum
seekers to wait years to finalise their claims;

• The Department`s stance of denying the right to earn a livelihood
for traders in Limpopo who have attempted to comply with national,
provincial and local legislation to lawfully operate their businesses
and support their families. Despite what the Supreme Court of Appeal
said about human dignity, he and his Deputy Minister have introduced
new legislation in Parliament to prevent asylum seekers from
supporting themselves and their families through lawful work due to
lengthy delays in the system;

• The rampant and unchecked corruption at refugee reception offices,
most notably the Marabastad offices where LHR`s 2015 report on
corruption found that over half of clients at that office have been
asked to pay a bribe to receive services. The corruption has only
increased with the breakdown of systems and poor management at that
office;

• Allowing his Department to threaten schools into refusing access to
education for children who remain undocumented, in clear violation of
section 28 of the Constitution;

• Abusing court processes and expending vast amounts of money on
defending clearly unlawful actions through the Department`s
beleaguered legal services branch;

Citizens in Centurion are not the only ones who deserve an apology for
bad service. The Minister must apologise for the collapse of South
Africa`s refugee system and making false impressions with
international donors that everything is fine. These are real people
who are suffering real problems due to the Department`s inability to
do its job. Why don`t foreigners deserve the same respect as citizens?

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