POLOKWANE – The DA has called the local Department of Home Affairs at Library Gardens a ‘ticking time bomb’ during an oversight visit inspection which was held last Tuesday.
DA Provincial Leader, Jacques Smalle MPL and DA Team One South Africa Spokesperson on Immigration, Jacques Julius MP conducted an oversight inspection as part of their listening tour. They found that Limpopo has a shortage of immigration officers to service the demand. “There is a total of 18 immigration officers servicing the entire province: 15 work in Polokwane, one in Blouberg, one in Lebowakgomo and one in Seshego. They work with cases ranging from one to 200 hundred within a week. They also experience challenges with operations and making their way to hot spots where illegal immigrants are concentrated,” said Julius.
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They did however highlight the positive – a court designated to weekly specifically deal with illegal immigrant cases.
Another challenge that they noted was the lack of uniform and identification/ appointment cards.
“Home Affairs officers don’t have uniforms and they don’t have appointment cards and the challenge is that when immigration officers go out and have to do their work, they are not easily identifiable. People do not listen to them and that poses a serious challenge, because they are unable to prove that they actually are from Home Affairs,” he said.
He further added that he was told that they have requested the uniforms and identification cards for six years now from head office and staff are disgruntled. Another problem that they further observed was fake identity documents that people are making use of. During their visit, they witnessed long queues at Home Affairs.
Present in the queue was Melida Mothoa from Ga Mashashane who was there with her one-year-old and 11-year-old children.
She lamented the difficulty of waiting in line with young children: “I feel bad because we have been here since early this morning and my children are hungry . There is nothing I can do about it. We have already been told that they only help a specific number of people and that the rest should return next week. I’m worried about where I’ll get the money to come back next week,” she said.
The oversight committee also said it was quite easy for people to enter the country illegally, bypassing the border post.
“Water levels are quite low, so it is possible to cross the river by car in some spots. One can see the tracks of cars that went through there barely a day ago. We were there for an hour and a half and traveled for about five kilometers and we didn’t encounter one member of the SANDF.”
Smalle said it was key to secure the country’s borders and get the immigration system up to speed so that locals and foreign nationals who are documented can work and play alongside each other and build the economy to create jobs.
