Faizel Patel – 04/03/2021

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has announced the establishment of a ministerial committee that will review all permits and visas issued since 2004.

This comes after Motsoaledi expressed his intention in Parliament three weeks ago, to set up a task team to review some permits that were issued by Home Affairs Department over the years.

Motsoaledi says he identified the need to review the permits after realising a trend emerging from the outcomes of cases involving prominent people investigated by the department’s Counter Corruption Unit.

The unit investigates wrongdoing by departmental officials.

Speaking to Radio Islam, Motsoaledi’s spokesperson Siya Qoza says the minister wants a preliminary report in three months time.

“We want to make sure that we get to the bottom of it and party guilty of wrongdoing faces the full consequences of their actions. So over the next three months, the committee will be accelerating its work.”

Qoza says a number of permits and visas will be scrutinised.

“The one is permanent residence. We are also going to be looking at corporate visas. These are visas given to companies that employ foreign nationals. We are also going to be looking at critical skills visas and retired persons visa, citizenship and study visas.”

Qoza says Motsoaledi chose 2004 as the cut-off date because that was the year the Immigration Act, Act number 13 of 2002, came into operation.

Listen to the interview with Siya Qoza