Newly appointed home affairs minister Leon Schreiber will increase inspections at restaurants, spaza shops, farms, and mines to heighten the crackdown on undocumented workers in these industries.
Schreiber said while SA welcomes those who contribute to the country legally through skills, investments, and as tourists, it needed to do more to combat illegal immigration.
“We must do so both because it is central to our national security but also out of our commitment to economic growth. The reality is that no one will want to visit or invest if we allow our country to lose control over its borders and internal security,” he said during his budget speech vote yesterday.
He said he plans to increase the number of inspections by 50% in the coming year. He said the inspections would be effective when done in collaboration with other departments.
“I will be reaching out to colleagues in the relevant departments to conduct joint operations, to maximise our ability to hold everyone involved in illegal activities to account,” he said.
The news comes more than two months after a building collapsed in George, Western Cape. The majority of those who died at the construction site were foreign workers, some of whom were undocumented and paid below the legal minimum wage. Some were reportedly earning R85 to R150 a day.
Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber:
‘”We have mixed emotions about what is currently happening. Obviously, the government of the day is in the process of trying to prove themselves that it is doing something. But we welcome that move. The complete eradication of undocumented foreign nationals from our economy, from our spaza shops would begin to mitigate a lot of things. We welcome any initiative to boost the economy,”
Bayanda Radebe from the Ratanda Spaza Shop Forum in Gauteng said they welcomed Schreiber’s move to rid the country of undocumented migrant workers.
“We have mixed emotions about what is currently happening. Obviously, the government of the day is in the process of trying to prove themselves that it is doing something. But we welcome that move. The complete eradication of undocumented foreign nationals from our economy, from our spaza shops would begin to mitigate a lot of things. We welcome any initiative to boost the economy,” he said.
Sowetan previously reported that some of the business people who were part of the forum allocated dozens of shops to themselves and other community members after previous owners who are foreigners were driven out of the community due to tensions last year.
NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said illegal miners had caused chaos in the mining industry.
“The NUM does not support undocumented foreigners and we have legal immigrants who are our members. We support the minister of home affairs in dealing with illegal immigrants in the mines because that causes instability. Most of the illegal immigrants work as illegal miners,” he said.
Aggrey Mahanjana, an executive member at African Farmers’ Association of SA, said the eradication of undocumented migrants should be extended across the board.
“We cannot allow our country to be a free-for-all, for people to just come and get jobs but also us as farmers we need to toe the line in terms of ensuring that whoever we employ is a properly documented person. Also, people get fake documents from home affairs which has been infested by corruption,” he said.
Grace Harding, chairperson of The Restaurant Collective, said the inspections should be done in a respectable manner that does not scare patrons away.
“We have had instances in the recent past which has traumatised international tourists, since the police accompanying home affairs officials were carrying rifles and the patrons thought their lives might be in danger with the aggressive way the whole operation was conducted. The same results could have been achieved with a courteous approach, which would not have seen the patrons flee in fear,” said Harding.
Schreiber also received some criticism recently after he decided to extend the temporary concession for foreign nationals who are currently awaiting the outcome of visa, waiver, and appeal applications.
He said the extension safeguards applicants, including those who are contributing to SA’s economy through their scarce skills, from suffering adverse consequences or being erroneously declared undesirable while they await the outcome of applications submitted to the department.
Yesterday, the minister said the country needed to retain skilled foreign labours in order to boost the country’s economy.
“The National Treasury has also found that increasing the availability of scarce skills in the labour market is the second most powerful step we can take to grow the economy and create jobs for South Africans,” said Schreiber.
Among other interventions in his department were the issuing of 280 smart ID to naturalized citizens with 697 in the process of being issued. The Border Management Authority (BMA) has also absorbed 400 junior border guards to man the major borders: Breitbridge, Lebombo, Kosi Bay, Maseru, and Ficksburg.
“Their primary tasks include addressing the scourge of illegal entry, the smuggling of illicit cigarettes, stolen high-value vehicles, and stock theft.”
He said to date, BMA guards have intercepted and deported over 296,000 individuals who had attempted to enter the country illegally. In addition, over 303 vehicles were intercepted when criminals attempted to illegally take them out of the country.
-SL
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