‘Undocumented foreigners an issue’ �` Tshwane mayor

Source: Pretoria News, 12/10/2018

“The City is open to people from across the continent and the world
but the national government is duty-bound to ensure that all people
enter, live and leave the country legally.”
The plight of undocumented immigrants, exacerbated by crisis and
upheaval is cause for great concern.
This is according to Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga who said the recent
fires that engulfed parts of Plastic View informal settlement had once
again brought to the fore the unresolved issues of illegal immigration
and national government’s inaction in this regard.
He said what was abundantly clear from this tragic incident was that
the Home Affairs Department was failing dismally to address this
longstanding challenge that had seen xenophobic attacks, loss of life,
exploitation and fight for limited resources such as employment and
housing.
In a letter to Malusi Gigaba, the Minster of Home Affairs Msimanga
stated that the department had a responsibility to facilitate and
simplify the issuance of permanent and temporary residences to those
who were entitled to them and to detect and deal lawfully and
decisively with undocumented foreign nationals.
“The continued violation of immigration laws is an affront to the rule
of law of this country, a precedence that the Home Affairs Department
is allowing to perpetuate.
“While we sympathise with the undocumented foreign nationals, we have
an obligation to first provide services to South African citizens.
He revealed that the majority of Plastic View residents were
undocumented immigrants and thus fell outside the prescripts of the
housing code.
“This has serious knock-on implications for the Tshwane metro and
Gauteng Provinces’ programme of action to provide housing
opportunities to our people.
“The fact is that the metro has a housing backlog that stretches back
20 years that needs to be diligently engaged.”
“The process is further exacerbated by prohibitive legislation making
it difficult to discharge evictions throughout the city.
“The department’s failure to address the issue of unlawful immigration
further compounds a set of circumstances that is already not ideal for
the democratic project and the realisation of the Bill of Rights.”
Msimanga pleaded for assistance to deal with the problem of
undocumented foreign nationals.
“It is no secret that the poor management of illegal immigration
affects all countries and places great strain on diplomatic relations.”
He further added that the housing and human settlements space wasn’t
the only realm in which illegal immigration posed a problem.
“This is true of the overstretched resources across all sectors of
local government and its direct ability to discharge its
constitutional mandate to provide services.”
“The City is open to people from across the continent and the world
but the national government is duty-bound to ensure that all people
enter, live and leave the country legally.”
He said those who qualified to be within our borders must be processed
and provided with papers timeously.
“Until such time that the Department of Home Affairs gets its head out
of the sand and addresses this serious issue, Tshwane, and indeed the
rest of South Africa will continue to deal with the crisis of
undocumented foreign nationals,” said Msimanga.