Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has proposed stringent laws aimed at improving the granting of citizenship, immigration and refugees permits in the country.
On Sunday, the minister released the proposed White Paper on the draft policy framework on citizenship for public comment.
The aim of the White Paper is to provide a framework for granting residency to foreign nationals, he said, while also dealing with the protection of refugees and asylum seekers.
Addressing the media, the minister gave some details of the proposed policy, saying section 4.3 of the Citizenships Act must be repealed to give way for inclusive legislation that deals with immigration, citizenship and refugee protection.
“The current SA Citizenship Act is a relic of the colonial era and a replica of the 1949 Citizenship Act under the British Union of South Africa.
“This piece of legislation is not in harmony with each other. Piecemeal amendments were made without any policy framework. If I am not mistaken, the Immigration Act has been amended five times already. All those amendments were piecemeal,” he said.
On the issue of refugee protection, the minister said the UN adoption of a 1967 UN Refugee Convention and other protocols have become problematic for the country.
“In 1967, the United Nations adopted protocols related to the status of refugees. Meanwhile, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now called AU, endorsed its own 1969 AU convention governing specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa to deal with peculiar circumstances of migrating refugees in Africa. This was done in the spirit of Pan Africanism. This prohibits the refusal of entry, expulsion and extradition of asylum seekers and refugees and also provides certain exclusions on certain grounds,” he said.
Despite this, he said, most countries’ policies are more stringent than those being applied by South Africa. Even the richest countries are able to reserve their rights in granting permits and citizenships to immigrants, he added.
“Furthermore, the principle of Pan Africanism does not promote illegal entry. Asylum seekers and refugees were not recognised in South Africa during the apartheid era up until 1993. During this era, SA did not accede to any international conventions relating to the status of asylum seekers and refugees,” the minister said.
Since 1996, he said, the country has acceded to international conventions without having developed its own clear policies on immigration. This has impacted negatively on the country’s ability to pick and choose which immigrants and refugees are granted permits to reside in South Africa.
“All these conventions provide for countries to make exceptions on areas that will be difficult for their countries to cater for ... Unfortunately we did not do so.
“Both the conventions and protocols allow any state to make reservations. Many countries make reservations, as provided for, but South Africa unfortunately has not done so,” he said.
“We believe and emphasise that this was a serious mistake by the government. This state of affairs is always unfavourable to the interests of the state,” he said.
The White paper states that the South African government was proposing changes to make things far more favourable to the country’s own political and democratic framework, he said.
“Government must review or withdraw from the 1967 Convention like other countries. I do not want this to be misconstrued and people might get excited about it ... There is absolutely nothing wrong that the UN has done. But there is everything wrong that we as South Africans have done. As a country we must press a reset button,“ he said.
The minister has proposed the repealing of the Citizenship Act and the Birth Act.
“The citizenship and birth right acts must be repealed in their entirety and included in a single legislation dealing with citizenship, immigration, and refugee protection.
“This will remove contradictions and loopholes, as is now the case with the three-piece legislation,” the minister said.
He has given members of the public until January 19 next year to make their input on the proposed policy on citizenship.
The Star