The Portfolio of Home Affairs has resolved to investigate strengthening application processes for documentation governed by the Immigration Act. This resolution was made following a briefing by the department that there is increasing prevalence of fraudulent applications for permanent residency in South Africa.
The committee raised concerns that the overburdening of the application processes governed by the Immigration Act is not only a threat to the security of the State, but also undermines the department’s processes. The committee heard that the law allowed for extended appeal processes.
“This is concerning in the context that applicants whose applications have been denied abuse the system with numerous appeals. The committee will consider ways of legislatively strengthening the process and eliminating countless appeals, which have an impact on the speed with which the department processes genuine applications,” said Mr Mosa Chabane, the Acting Chairperson of the Committee.
The Deputy Director-General for Immigration, Mr Jackie McKay, informed the committee that applicants who submit fraudulent documentation and have their applications denied are allowed to appeal all the way to the Immigration Appeals Board, which unnecessarily delays the process. “The likelihood of an appeal being sustained is non-existent if an application is denied due to fraudulent or fake documentation. But we find that people continued to appeal using the same fake documentation,” Mr McKay said.
The department highlighted the need to invest more time and resources into verification processes involving high-risk cases. The most prevalent cases seen by the department include marriages of inconvenience, retirements and fraudulent financial independence certificates. This has led to the overburdening of the inspectorate unit, which is currently staffed with only 700 personnel for the entire country. In the United Kingdom, 700 inspectorate personnel service the City of London.
Another concern for the department is the prevalence of marriages of convenience. “In some cases, a foreign national would claim to be married to a South African, but you find the citizen is living in a different part of the country,” Mr McKay said.
There are also increasing claims of applications for permanent residence on the basis that the applicant is retiring to South Africa. “In one case, a 25-year-old Chinese citizen said they were applying for a permanent residency on the basis of retirement,” Mr McKay emphasised.
The committee said the department must investigate involving the police in cases where fraudulent papers are submitted. “The question that we must ask is at what point the department include the police in the application process. If an applicant submits fraudulent documentation, surely the police must be informed, because we cannot allow fraud to flourish,” said Mr Mosiuoa Lekota, a member of the committee.
The department said there has generally been an increase in permanent residency applications since 2009, with 11 000 applications received to date in 2019, compared to just over 26 000 applications at the end of 2018. Currently the top five nationalities applying for permanent residency are Zimbabwe with 19 056 applications, India (15 062), China (10 087), Pakistan (8 376) and Nigeria with 7 590 applications between 2014 and 2019.
The department said despite these challenges, it is putting more focus on ensuring that business people and those with critical skills are still being processed urgently to support economic growth. This has seen an improvement in processing business and general work visas, from 66% in 2014/2015 financial year to 97.9% in 2018/19 financial year. Critical skills visa processing increased from 80% in 2015/16 to 88.5% in 2018/19 financial year.
The committee highlighted its consistent call for the strengthening of the inspectorate division to assist with the adjudication of applications governed by the Immigration Act. “The focus on enforcement and reprioritisation of R70 million to procure vehicles and equipment to strengthen the inspectorate function is welcomed because it has been raised by the committee a number of times. The committee remains of the view that 700 inspectorate officials is paltry in view of the inspectorate’s mandate,” Mr Chabane said.
The committee observed that strengthening the inspectorate unit is prevented by financial challenges. The Acting Director-General, Mr Thulani Mavuso, said that Treasury has asked departments to make projections on how a 5% reduction in compensation of employees will impact on the department. “A 5% reduction on COE will amount to a loss of about 200 employees within the department,” Mr Mavuso clarified.
The committee said the department must intensify its discussions with National Treasury to find ways to resolve the challenge.
Malatswa Molepo
28 August 2019
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