A group of illegal immigrants was taken into custody, following a raid at local factories yesterday.
The raid was initiated by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in KwaZulu-Natal, together with Newcastle SAPS. According to sources, 9 factories were raided, with arrests made in 3 of them.
Provincial Manager of DHA, Cyril Mncwabe explained: “The purpose of this programme was to ensure the visibility of [DHA], particularly in carrying out these vigorous raids. We arrested people at the factories, and we also barricaded some stores in the CBD. We found there is a total disregard of the law by [certain] employers. We found many people from Lesotho, who don’t have the relevant documents to be in the country and are kept in disgraceful conditions.”
Mncwabe said people found in the country illegally were punishable by law.
“How punishable the crime is, will depend on the Magistrate. Perpetrators can be fined, while repeat offenders can experience harsher punishment as direct jail imprisonment. At the one factory shop in the industrial area, people were jumping over fences trying to run away from us, and you can see people are desperate to stay in this country, but there needs to be proper processes and regulations. We loaded about 4 bakkies with people who don’t have legal documents.”
He added it is a crime to employ people without them having proper documentation.
“As a employer, you have a duty to check with [DHA] if immigrants are legally documented. The biggest problem with not being legalised, is if that person were to commit a crime, police pick up fingerprints from the crime scene and need to run them through its system and that of DHA. That perpetrator won’t be found if they are not documented.”
In a similar raid in Newcastle three months earlier, the KZN Minister of Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Sihle Zikalala said he was appalled by the working conditions at some local factory shops, and vowed to come back and check on progress since then.
Businessman and IFP Councillor, Alex Liu said the Chinese Chamber of Commerce (CCC) was looking into the matter.
“We heard about the raid yesterday, and the Chamber has indicated it has spoken to some of the factory owners about the importance of compliance and regulations of the law. We received one name of the employer involved in this, and have spoken to labour consultants to get hold of them and find out what is going on, and how is this happening.”
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