It’s time the ANC faced up to reality

The sounds you hear in the background are some very expensive chickens coming home to roost for the ANC … its failure since 1994 to implement a coherent immigration policy and to secure our borders. The department of home affairs (DHA) is involved in a swamp of lawsuits on everything from rejection of applications for asylum to delays in finalising visas, permanent residence and work permits.

The DHA could be looking at a mountain in compensation and legal bills and has set aside R2 billion of its budget to cater for such “contingent liabilities”.

Delays in issuing documents have been cited as potentially or actually damaging to the economy of South Africa – hurting tourism through slow issuing of tourist visas and the economy generally through not approving timeously work permits for scarce specialist workers who can contribute to the growth of local companies.

Additionally, the department is facing a number of challenges to its arrests of foreigners allegedly illegally in South Africa and its detaining of those people at the Lindela holding facility in Krugersdorp.

The inefficiency within the system has led to corruption mushrooming in the department. The issuing of illegal documents to people connected with bombings in the UK in 2008 was the main reason South African passport holders have been forced to apply for visas for the UK as well as European countries.

However, the fact that the ANC has not implemented a proper system of assessing potential migrants, coupled with the almost total lack of any control over our borders, is at the heart of the problem. The presence of so many illegal people has led to outbreaks of xenophobic violence around the country as South Africans feel threatened by the arrivals.

Acknowledging that fundamental truth is not something the ANC has ever done – but it needs to face up to reality.