Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town – Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is reviewing all applications of visas and permits issued for the last 15 years to stop the abuse of the system.
Motsoaledi told the National Council of Provinces he has appointed a team, led by former director-general in the Presidency Dr Cassius Lubisi, to review these applications issued in terms of the Immigration Act of 2004.
He said he has not hidden behind the fact there are problems in the system.
Motsoaledi was answering questions on self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri in the NCOP yesterday.
“The issue of permanent residency… I did not hide this matter that there are problems. That is why in the National Assembly I announced a team, which has been working for three months – a team led by former director-general in the Presidency Dr Lubisi to review all the applications of visas and permits that were issued since 2004.
“The permanent resident permit like this one, the naturalisation, the business visas, every visas of people who have retired, spousal visas. All of them are being reviewed since 2004. Why since 2004? That is the year in which the Immigration Act came into effect,” said Motsoaledi.
He said the department would not be taking this review if it did not recognise the need to do it.
He said the anti-corruption unit had found that the system has been abused over the years.
“When they were doing their anti-corruption work they discovered that two-thirds of all the complaints they were investigating emanates from permits like this one. I said no, let’s investigate finally to see what is happening and that team consists of investigators and people who understand governance. They have just submitted their preliminary report, which, of course, is preliminary so I won’t make it public,” said Motsoaledi.
He said the report would determine the amount of work to be done to fix all the wrongs in the system.
It was in their interest to get things right.
Motsoaledi also told the House that there was no evidence that Bushiri had visited the country on three occasions.
This comes as South Africa’s application for the extradition of Bushiri has not been concluded in the courts in Malawi.
Motsoaledi said reports that Bushiri came to this country did not provide evidence for this. He said even the Hawks had denied the claim.
Bushiri has been on the run over the last eight months after he skipped his bail.
He had been on trial with his wife Mary and other accused in Pretoria.
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