Permanent residency permit delays an unnecessary blocker to economic recovery in the Western Cape

8 July 2021

Today I wrote to the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, with a submission requesting that the Department of Home Affairs urgently resume the processing of Permanent Residency Permit applications which are vital to attracting critical skills and foreign investment to support economic recovery in South Africa.

This follows the publishing of Directions under the Alert Level 4 restrictions on the 01 June 2021 by the Department of Home Affairs, announcing that the processing of Permanent Residency Permit applications will only resume from 01 January 2022.

The reason for the delay in processing these applications is unclear but, from the experiences of our Department of Economic Development and Tourism, what is clear is that these delays will further compound an already problematic process where it is not uncommon for a Permanent Residency Permit applicant to wait for up five years for their application to be processed. 

This delay has a considerable negative impact on entrepreneurs, highly skilled individuals and businesses whose much-needed expertise and foreign investment contributes to job creation and economic growth in South Africa.  

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic governments have had to adapt and innovate to ensure the continued delivery of public services.

The Department of Home Affairs must do the same and put the necessary systems in place to meet the demand of the applications required. The decision to place a moratorium on these applications appears short-sighted and unnecessarily detrimental to both individual applicants and our economic recovery in South Africa.

And so, we request that Minister Aaron Motsoaledi urgently intervene to ensure resources are allocated to the Department of Home Affairs to remove the red tape delaying the processing of Permanent Residency Permit applications which is critical to job creation and economic recovery in the Western Cape.   

Issued by Francine Higham, Spokesperson for the Provincial Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities (Responsible for the Provincial Treasury and the Department of Economic Development and Tourism), 8 July 2021