Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that the Department cannot account for how many undocumented migrants are in the country.
Motsoaledi made the remarks on Sunday while briefing the media on the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee Protection.
He said that the Department of Home Affairs, along with Statistics South Africa cannot fully account for how many foreigners are in the country. Motsoaledi was quoted by EWN as saying:
South Africa today is a great place to live, even though some South Africans don’t believe this. No one can account for all the undocumented migrants.
The Department of Home Affairs has no idea as to how many illegal migrants are in South Africa here… because there is no mechanism of knowing.Get Pindula News on our WhatsApp Channel
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Earlier last week, the South African cabinet approved the publication of the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee Protection for public comment.
Motsoaledi also said the establishment of the Border Management Authority (BMA) was not to prevent people from coming into the country. He said:
People like to misconstrue facts that we established the BMA to stop people from coming into South Africa.
We’re not doing anything of that sort. All we’re doing is that people must come into the country illegally.
All we are doing is, people must come into the country legally. Our problem here is illegality.
The Border Management Authority Act must be reviewed so that we align it with the Immigration, Citizenship Act as a new policy framework, because they were all passed differently at different times, without referral to each other.
In 2022, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said that there were 773 246 Zimbabweans in South Africa of which 461 293 were men and 311 953 women.
However, in 2019, Lindiwe Zulu, a member of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), claimed that there were “millions of Zimbabweans living in South Africa”.
Last week, South Africa’s Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke, revealed that Shona, a language spoken by the majority of Zimbabweans, has emerged as a new language in Limpopo Province.
Presenting the 2022 Census Report to Premier Stanley Mathabatha in Polokwane, Risenga revealed that Shona is spoken in over 28 000 households in the province.
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