Home Affairs committed to re-orientation as a security department
13 Jan 2012
The Department of Home Affairs has noted media reports regarding the rerouting of passenger liners arriving in Cape Town to Duncan Dock at the Cape Town Harbour rather than the V & A Waterfront.
The Department, in this regard, wishes to put the following on record:
- As an arm of government, the Department of Home Affairs is committed to ensuring the achievement of all government priorities and objectives. Economic growth, the promotion of tourism and national security can be counted amongst these.
- In an attempt to re-orientate itself towards a security paradigm to ensure it is able to take its rightful place within the Justice and Crime Prevention Cluster (JCPS) as a central pillar of national security, the Department has been overhauling its immigration operations.
- In this regard 350 South African National Defence Force (SANDF) recruits and now newly trained immigration officers, have been deployed to our national keypoint, OR Tambo International Airport in December 2011 as part of a pilot project aimed at amongst others, building the Department as a security Department while investigating models of co-operation between members of the cluster.
- The immigration overhaul will be extended, in due course, to all land, air and sea ports of entry.
- In line with this, since the V & A Waterfront is not an international and designated port of entry, passenger liners have been redirected to Duncan Dock.
- In addition, passenger liners docking at the V & A Waterfront with free public access and inadequate immigration controls, would be contrary to the Department's stated priority to enhance its immigration operations as the first line of defence in the country's national security strategy.
It is within this context that the Department of Home Affairs has taken a decision to re-direct passenger liners to the Duncan Dock, as a designated port of entry.
Statement issued by Manusha Pillai, Department of Home Affairs, January 13 2012
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