December 2000
Back HOME or IMMIGRATION POLICY
More than six years after the 1994 elections, and three years after the seminal Draft Green Paper on International Migration, fundamental transformation of South Africa's inherited immigration policy framework seems as elusive as ever. The apartheid-era Aliens Control Act remains in force, to the dismay of those who consider it an antiquated and inappropriate piece of legislation. Everyone is convinced of the need for new policy and legislation. The problem is how to get there.
In early 1999 the Department of Home Affairs gazetted a White Paper on International Migration and received public comment until 30 November 1999. The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs reserved its constitutional right to consider and debate the 1999 White Paper on International Migration. The Committee held public hearings in mid-1999, in which serious problems with the White Paper were identified.
Conflict between the committee and the IFP Minister erupted in October when the Committee asked for public input from the Department of Home Affairs and was dissatisfied with the response. The divide between the Minister of Home Affairs and the Parliamentary Committee on process has widened over the last few months (see epolitics for background). In the latest exchange, the Minister's personal advisor, a Mario Ambrosini, has threatened to sue the Committee and Parliament.
The Portfolio Committee's Penultimate Report on the White Paper recommends that the White Paper be scrapped. Smaller political parties with representation on the Committee have rejected this recommendation but the ANC is holding firm (see Portfolio Committee and Business Day). The Committee has consistently refused to consider immigration legislation until the White Paper is approved as government policy.
Meanwhile, the Minister has pressed ahead with the development of new legislation, a process that actually began when the White Paper was still out for public comment. A draft Immigration Bill was gazetted in early 2000, which critics charge departs considerably from the White Paper. At a Ministerial Conference on the Immigration Bill in Cape Town in July 2000, the Bill received wide-ranging criticism from business, labour, human rights groups and academics. The Bill was then submitted to Cabinet for ratification but several senior ANC Cabinet Ministers reportedly have severe difficulties with many of its proposals and have sent it back to the Ministry for revisions.
SAMP continues to monitor the situation and will report on further developments.
Back HOME or IMMIGRATION POLICY