Speaking notes for weekly media briefing by Home Affairs Director-General, Mkuseli Apleni
19 Jan 2012
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, thank you for taking the time to join us once again today for our first media briefing of the year. We trust you have had a restful holiday and that we will once again this year build on the working relationship we have established in the last two years.
Today, we would like to brief you on our enhanced immigration operations, the issuance of work and study permits, the status of the Zimbabwe Documentation Project as well as the status of Serbian national Dobrosav Gavric alias Sasa Kovacevic who entered South Africa illegally in 2007.
Enhancements in our immigration operations
Members of the media would be aware that Minister of Home Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in the department's Budget Speech in April 2011 committed to prioritising the management of immigration in the 2011/12 financial year.
The prioritising of immigration management comes within the context of our commitment to re-orientate the department towards a security paradigm so that it can take its rightful place within the Justice and Crime Prevention Cluster (JCPS). In addition, this would ensure we work towards achieving an optimal balance towards security and service delivery, which are the two imperatives of the department.
OR Tambo International Airport
To this end we have undertaken various initiatives including the lateral transfer of 350 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) officers to the Department of Home Affairs who have been trained as immigration officers. The newly trained immigration officers have been deployed to our national keypoint OR Tambo International Airport from 21 December 2011.
Immigration officers have been trained on best international practices which amongst others, seek to deal with child trafficking, human trafficking, illegal immigration, and money laundering. Therefore, a new method of immigration management has been adopted to replace the one whereby an immigration officer will simply conduct passport control.
The new method involves using skills and systems whereby the comparison of the passport photo and the actual person is conducted, as this helps deal with illegal immigration. However, in all these processes regard to individuals' rights as enshrined in the Constitution will be balanced.
We are pleased to report that this deployment has been overwhelmingly successful with the immigration officers processing the entry and departure of six hundred and nineteen thousand two hundred and sixty one (619 261) travellers, of which two hundred and sixty eight thousand two hundred and sixty (268 260) were South African citizens and three hundred and fifty one thousand and three (351 003) were foreign nationals.
From 21 December 2011 to 18 January 2012, seven thousand four hundred and seventy two (7 472) violations of our immigration laws were identified with a further two hundred and thirty (230) suspicious cases being referred to our Inspectorate Services for further investigation.
We are cognisant of the fact that there may still be instances of teething problems, as with any new operation. In this regard, we welcome all suggestions and call on members of the public to seek the assistance of the supervisor on duty. We also appeal to members of the public to adhere to the guidelines provided by airlines that travellers arrive at the airport in good time to ensure they can be efficiently, but thoroughly processed through immigration control.
Ports of entry
We have also begun a process of strengthening the security at our ports of entry. In this regard, we have taken a decision that passenger liners would no longer be allowed to dock at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town since it is not a designated port of entry.
It must be noted that it is only the Minister of Home Affairs who is constitutionally mandated to designate a port of entry within the Republic of South Africa.
Passenger liners would therefore be rerouted to Duncan Dock at the Cape Town Harbour at which the entry of foreign nationals into South Africa can be processed in line with our Immigration Act.
We have also, effective Monday 16 January 2012 deployed additional human resource capacity to the Cape Town and Durban Harbours, 37 and 47 respectively. This would ensure we are able to process foreign nationals more speedily and thoroughly according to our immigration protocols and processes which are ultimately designed to ensure that indeed, all South Africans are and feel safe.
Issuance of Study and Work Visas
The Department of Home Affairs is committed to meeting its target of recruiting 50 000 critically skilled foreign nationals to ensure South Africa meets its developmental objectives.
In line with this we will, amongst others, assist foreign academics and students who require work and study visas to pursue their careers and studies at various institutions of higher learning in the country.
We have accordingly taken a series of steps, through the Work and Study Visa Project, to speed-up study visa applications for the 2012 academic year.
This includes:
1. The establishment of a dedicated adjudication hub to focus solely on work and study visa for educational institutions
2. Separation of all outstanding study visa applications from 2012 applications in order to eliminate a backlog. In this regard 2012 study visas will be adjudicated daily and outstanding applications will receive special attention
3. The activation of Home Affairs provincial and regional offices to assist academics and students to apply for work and study visa applications
4. Linkages with educational institutions to assist in the verification of supporting documents accompanying work and study visas.
We therefore call upon educational institutions to complete all work and study visas by the 15 March 2012.
Any enquiries in this regard by educational institutions must be directed to the Project Manager, Ms Ziphora Senokoane at (012) 406 4486 or 082 887 9257 and e-mail [email protected].
Status of the Zimbabwe Documentation Project
You would be familiar with the department's commitment to regularise the stay in South Africa of all undocumented Zimbabwean nationals, in line with a Cabinet announcement of 2 September 2010, who applied for work, study or business permits by 31 December 2010.
By this date the department had received 275 762 applications for work, study and business permits.
To date and having undertaken various measures to communicate with all the applicants, both in terms of the submission of outstanding documents as well as the collection of permits, we are pleased to say we have issued 255 282 permits. We are therefore left with 20 480 outstanding permits. We reiterate our commitment to ensuring that these are issued speedily so that this project can be brought to a close.
To this end, the Department of Home Affairs will soon convene the Zimbabwean Stakeholder Forum with a view to providing final feedback to stakeholders and prepare for the closure of the project.
Status of the Serbian national Dobrosav Gavric alias Sasa Kovacevic
We have noted media interest in the matter of Serbian national Dobrosav Gavric alias Sasa Kovacevic who has been in South Africa from September 2007.
We have examined this case and can confirm that Dobrosav Gavric alias Sasa Kovacevic, entered South Africa illegally on 22 September 2007 using a fraudulent passport with a fake identity from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has been residing illegally in South Africa since then.
On the basis of this fraudulent passport, permit and false identity, Mr Gavric and his wife Danijela Lazic, fraudulently acquired Temporary Residence Permits and Permanent Residence Permits. Interestingly, Mr Gavric acknowledges that his visas were obtained using an alias, making these invalid simply on this count alone.
Mr Gavric has also admitted to being involved in other nefarious activities.
In terms of the above which are clearly a breach of our Immigration Act, Mr Gavric and his family have been declared as prohibited persons under section 29 of Immigration Act, 2002 which reads as follows:
(a) 29 (1) the following foreigners are prohibited persons and do not qualify for a visa, admission into the Republic, a temporary or a permanent residence permit:
(b) anyone against whom a warrant is outstanding or a conviction has been secured in the Republic or a foreign country in respect of genocide, terrorism, murder, torture, drug related charges, money laundering or kidnapping;
(e) Anyone who is or has been a member of or adherent to an organisation or association utilising crime or terrorism to pursue its ends
(f) Anyone found in possession of a fraudulent residence permit, passport or identification document
Mr Gravic and his family are further declared to be undesirable persons under section 30 of the Immigration Act, 2002 which reads as follows:
30(1) the following foreigners may be declared undesirable by the Director General as prescribed, and after such declaration, do not qualify for a visa, admission into the Republic, a temporary or permanent residence permit:
(e) Anyone who has been ordered to depart in terms of this Act
(f) Anyone who is a fugitive from justice
Based on the determination that Mr Gavric and his family, including minor children, are declared as prohibited and undesirable persons, the department will ensure that the provisions of our Immigration Act are implemented.
Issued by the Department of Home Affairs, January 19 2012
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