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Gigaba has so much to #SaySorry4

In a front page exposé in the Pretoria News on 13 October 2016, Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, asked for forgiveness from “ordinary citizens” at the Centurion Home Affairs office for lengthy queues, poor communication and lack of professionalism.  While this photo opportunity no doubt revealed real problems at one particular office, Minister Gigaba has so much more to apologise for. 

On Sunday 11 September 2016, the Minister visited the Marabastad Refugee Reception Office to inspect the new paperless systems being put in place at that office.  Sunday is not a business day at the centre so there were no clients to apologise too.  Although not citizens, one wonders if the Minister would have felt the need to seek forgiveness for the absolute collapse of the refugee system in South Africa and the false impressions of abiding by international law he made to the United Nations in New York and Geneva last month. 

Instead of heaping praise on a broken Home Affairs, Gigaba should say sorry for:

  • The breakdown of systems at the Marabastad refugee office (the largest in South Africa) since June.  Similar to Mr Mkhize’s passing the buck onto Telkom for Centurion, these system failures have been blamed on everything from a failure of software to cables being stolen. The office is still not fully operational; 
  • The continued closure of refugee reception offices and the failure to abide by court orders to re-introduce services in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, causing thousands of asylum seekers to criss-cross the country looking for open offices to renew permits;
  • The complete collapse of the Refugee Appeal Board meaning that almost no appeals have been heard for over a year, causing asylum seekers to wait years to finalise their claims;
  • The Department’s stance of denying the right to earn a livelihood for traders in Limpopo who have attempted to comply with national, provincial and local legislation to lawfully operate their businesses and support their families.  Despite what the Supreme Court of Appeal said about human dignity, he and his Deputy Minister have introduced new legislation in Parliament to prevent asylum seekers from supporting themselves and their families through lawful work due to lengthy delays in the system;
  • The rampant and unchecked corruption at refugee reception offices, most notably the Marabastad offices where LHR’s 2015 report on corruption found that over half of clients at that office have been asked to pay a bribe to receive services.  The corruption has only increased with the breakdown of systems and poor management at that office;
  • Allowing his Department to threaten schools into refusing access to education for children who remain undocumented, in clear violation of section 28 of the Constitution;
  • Abusing court processes and expending vast amounts of money on defending clearly unlawful actions through the Department’s beleaguered legal services branch;

Citizens in Centurion are not the only ones who deserve an apology for bad service.  The Minister must apologise for the collapse of South Africa’s refugee system and making false impressions with international donors that everything is fine.  These are real people who are suffering real problems due to the Department’s inability to do its job.  Why don’t foreigners deserve the same respect as citizens?   

Tell us about your experiences at Home Affairs and let us ask Minister Malusi Gigabe to #SaySorry4 for that too...