Cape Town — Newly-appointed Minister of Home Affairs, Leon Schreiber, said he wants to restore the dignity of the department and intends to prioritse the mishandling of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP).
Schreiber is one of six Democratic Alliance (DA) members to be elected as a minister and was sworn-in today during the inaguration. He told Newzroom Afrika that his first priortity is to get the department working smoothly once again.
“This is a portfolio with a mountain of work, but I’ve got my boots on and I’m ready to tackle that. The visas issue is one, among many of the priorities that we need to tackle in this department.”
He said he wants to get the basics right and to eliminate key issues such as long queues and offline systems, which can be tackled with investment into the IT infrastructures.
He also spoke about making the department reputable and restoring the dignity back to one of the most important departments.
“We can restore dignity to the department of Home Affairs. Home Affairs is what makes us all South African. We get our ID documents [sic] there, it’s the first government department we interact with and also the last one if our lvoed ones pass away so it’s about dignity and our identity,” he added.
The newly-appointed Home Affairs minister, Leon Schreiber says one of his top priorities is to improve work visa processes which he says are essential for economic growth. Schreiber says he wants to restore the dignity of the department.
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Schreiber also said one of the key issues to address is the unlawful termination of the ZEP. It allowed Zimbabweans to live, work and study in South Africa since 2009. Previous Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi granted 178 000 Zimbabweans permits until November 2025, The Citizen reported.
He said the department has to approach issues such as visas and the ZEP on the basis of what the constitution has saod and he said he needs time to review the processes and missteps.
“The fundamental point to make is that we must uphold the law. That means where there is fraudulent activities or where people have engaged in corruption to obtain certificates or have corrupted the ZEP, there will need to be consequences. We must uphold the law in that space,” he said.
Schreiber will also look at the failures of the department to grant applicants legal paperwork to remain in the country and is something where major court cases have eminated from and that a person cannot be punshed for something the department has failed to do.
“There has to be a process for persons who have tried to legalise themselves, people who have tried to apply for other visas and have managed to contribute skills to the economy to actually obtain the paperwork where they have complied with the law. Where there are people who do not meet the criteria, that is where we will have to review that system,” Schreiber added.
He highlighted the “pressure” from the international community on South Africa to “play its role” in managing international migration and they’re expecting South Africa to step up in its reposnibilities of handing migration, and he expects some assitance in implementing that.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
