We won’t defuse the xenophobia bomb until we fix Home Affairs
13 April 2022
Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by John Steenhuisen MP.
Today, on Tuesday 13 April 2022, I led an oversight visit to the Department of Home Affairs’ central Johannesburg office on the corner of Harrison and Plein Streets in downtown Johannesburg. I was joined on this oversight visit by the DA’s Gauteng leadership, our Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and several DA mayors, MPs and MPLs.
The reason we conducted this visit with such a large delegation is because of the serious threat that the crippling inefficiencies and relentless corruption in the Department of Home Affairs poses to the stability of our country and the prosperity of our people. It is hard to think of another government department that causes more hardship, suffering and anger on a daily basis than the Department of Home Affairs.
This particular Home Affairs office has a reputation as one the country’s worst, but it is by no means an outlier. The dismal failings on display here are replicated in Home Affairs offices throughout the country, and thousands of South African citizens - as well as foreigners trying to obtain or maintain their legal status - face a brick wall of bureaucratic bungling, system failures and downright extortion within these walls every day.