‘There are thousands of refugees in the country without documents’
Ambush visit to home affairs.
A week after celebrating National Refugee Day, shadow MEC of Home Affairs, Haniff Hoosen conducted an oversight visit to the Orlando West Home Affairs offices.
This oversight visit was caused by the ongoing allegations of corruption, especially in the newly launched refugee offices.
Hoosen said thousands of refugees are walking around the country with no documents and that courses the citizens to lose hope in Home Affairs.
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He said he is not surprised by what they found in home affairs because that they have visited before. He gave an example that people who visit the department define it as a horror area.
Hoosen said it is sad how most people have to wait for many days or weeks just to make a 5 minutes thing. According to Hoosen, they have been proposing a system where people can just apply for a Smartcard at home online.
His main concern was with the number of refugee officers that were on duty and that who are supposed to work with refugees. He explained different reasons why refugees come to the country.
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“The increase of Xenophobia is coursed by the number of undocumented people that course the community to lose hope in Home Affairs,” said Hoosen.
During the visit, we came across a Matlakala Matli who has been struggling to apply for her Identity Document since 2013 because she was declared married to someone she doesn’t know or has never seen.
Matli’s life was difficult as she could not apply for a job, place her children at school and her children’s grant was cut because she did not have an ID.
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A source that refused to be mentioned said he is a refugee and has been living in the country since 1973. His problem started when he has to renew his smart card.
He alleged that they requested that he must pay R1450 but because he didn’t have the money he could not get it.
He has been a loyal voter in the country and has opened a construction company with the Id and now he is told that he has to bring his passport in order to renew his ID.
Video 4:
The manager of the branch Pearl Poto checked the ID of the unknown source and found that the source’s ID was illegal and he was claiming that he was legalised in the country.
She also found that Matli’s case was resolved. Poto said the branch could do better with more workers as they always have many people to serve.
Hoosen explained that people who visit the branch are confused by the tellers because they cannot give advises.
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