WE ARE REVIEWING PERMITS FOR ALL FOREIGNERS : SA GOVT

South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has set a five-member committee to review permits and visa issued to most immigrants in that country since the year 2004.

He said the move was meant to weed out all the rent-seeking activities in the Department of Home Affairs considering that in some cases permits or visas were being corruptly issued to the wrong people.

South Africa is home to an estimated five million foreigners including Zimbabweans and others from across the globe.

Minister Motsoaledi told journalists in Pretoria on Wednesday that the committee will review the Permanent Residence Permits (PRP), which are just a step away from citizenship, corporate visa, especially in the mining sector, business visa, (Professional) critical skills visa, Retired persons’ visa, Citizenship by naturalisation and Study visa.

“We chose 2004 as the cut-off date because that is the year the Immigration Act, Act number 13 of 2002, came into operation,” he said.

“In November 2020, during a high-powered investigation, I was alarmed when 14 members of the permitting section signed a petition demanding that the Counter Corruption unit should stop investigating their errors.

“This admission strengthened my resolve to have a more transparent permit issuance regime,” he said. Herald

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