Programme for Processing Immigration Bill [B79-2001]; Summary of Constitutional Decisions affecting Department of Home Affairs;

Home Affairs

12 March 2002
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HOME AFFAIRS PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
12 March 2002
PROGRAMME FOR PROCESSING IMMIGRATION BILL [B79-2001]; SUMMARY OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING ON ALIENS CONTROL ACT; JOHANNESBURG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT VISIT; SADC TOUR

Chairperson:
Mr. Mokoena (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Summary of Constitutional Court Decisions Affecting Department of Home Affairs
IFP, UDM, and DP Inputs on Chairperson's Proposed Programme and Process for Treatment of Immigration Bill [B79-2001] (Appendix 3)
10/3/02 Letter from Minister to Chairperson Regarding Proposed Changes to Text of Immigration Bill [B79-2001]
11/3/02 Letter from Chairperson to Minister's Secretary re: Scheduling of Ministerial Briefing on Immigration Bill [B79-2001] (Appendix 1)
Committee Report on Visit to Johannesburg International Airport (See Appendix 2)

Relevant Document:
Immigration Bill [B79-2001]

SUMMARY
The Chair discussed the programme for processing the Immigration Bill. It was decided amendments to the Aliens Control Act should be passed by May 2002. The Committee reported that problems at Johannesburg International Airport were successfully addressed and there was an increased SAPS presence.The Committee Study Tour for meetings with immigration officials would proceed. Committee participation in the upcoming SADC Tour was confirmed.

MINUTES
Mr Mokoena, the Chair noted the recent summary from Advocate Malatji of the Department of Home Affairs concerning Constitutional Court decisions affecting the Department, and the timing of the processsing of this Bill. The effect of these decisions was that amendments to the Aliens Control Act, whether separate or within the ambit of the Bill, must be passed by the end of May 2002 to prevent the Department from being in contempt of court. This information affected the schedule for processing the Bill. There was Committee consensus that this be expedited, after receiving a briefing from Minister Buthelezi (tentatively scheduled for March 19), though there were differences of opinion as to the specific mechanics of the process.

The Committee report on its February 25 meeting with Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and other officials at Johannesburg International Airport, held in the wake of recent problems affecting operations which impact on Department functions at the facility, was also considered, with its general conclusion being that problems were now being satisfactorily addressed, particularly with an increased SAPS presence. It was also confirmed that the April 7-16 Committee study tour for meetings with immigration and other officials of Swaziland and Lesotho, which would also include visits to Department facilities in Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Bloemfontein, would proceed.

Discussion
The Proposed Programme and Process for Treatment of Immigration Bill was discussed.
Prince Zulu (IFP) stated that due to urgency of the passage of this legislation in accordance with the wishes of the President and Speaker, and the parliamentary target schedule, the Bill be referred to the National Assembly by 20 March.

The Chair rejected this suggestion, noting that while "auxiliary parliamentary structures" provide scheduling guidance, they could not prescribe time frames, and that IFP reliance on such guidance as prescriptive, without making a substantive contribution concerning the Bill, did not demonstrate "political maturity". A comprehensive ministerial briefing on the Bill was essential. He noted correspondence with the Minister's office concerning its scheduling, now tentatively set for March 19, as it was not feasible to accommodate the Minister's request for its late inclusion on today's agenda.

In reply, Prince Zulu noted that the IFP caucus had made a considered decision to take the position articulated, which Ms Van Wyk (UDM) noted was its prerogative.

Van Wyk stated that the UDM wanted the expedited handling of the Bill, with deliberations, attended by Department officials and state law advisors, commencing immediately after the ministerial briefing. Noting the court deadline, the UDM also suggested that all other Committee activities, including study tours, be put on hold pending completion of deliberations. On the latter point the Chair stated that plans for the SADC tour have already been finalised, and that the trip would occur as scheduled.

Mr Grobler (DP) said that, given the extensive prior opportunities for public inputs on the Bill, and current opportunities for making additional written submissions, public hearings should be limited to one day. The DP concurred that Department officials and state law advisors should be present during deliberations in order to clarify any questions, and expedite refinement of textual changes.

After noting that members of the UCDP and ACDP were absent, the Chair asked for the comments of Mr Pretorius (NNP), who concurred that expedited handling, with direct participation of officials and advisors, was appropriate.

The Chair replied that while expedited handling was desirable, "zealous haste" in processing was not, and would lead to the kind of litigation problems the Department had been plagued with in dealing with the Aliens Control Act, as detailed by Advocate Malatji's summary (which noted the Department's assumption that the court-mandated amendments to the existing legislation would be included in the Bill, which the Department had expected to be passed last year).

After noting a comment by Prince Zulu (IFP) that the ANC's multi-stage processing programme was too long, and inconsistent with finalisation within the required timeframe, the Chair agreed that the public hearing process could be streamlined, due to the prior inputs and those coming from other concerned parliamentary committees, as previously discussed. He reiterated that further comments should not be "theoretical", but specific suggestions as to textual changes in the Bill.

Ms Van Wyk (UDM) requested that the March 19 scheduling of the ministerial briefing be confirmed, and that a time schedule for Committee processing be established. In reply, the Chair expressed his commitment to meeting the court mandated deadline, and his willingness to have the Committee hold evening sessions if necessary to do so.

Mr Sikakane (ANC) then stated that the IFP's request that Committee consideration of the Bill be completed by March 20 was not feasible, and questioned whether the presence of a state law advisor at every deliberative meeting was possible or desirable.

Discussion of the Bill concluded with the observation of Prince Zulu (IFP) that having to rely on the courts to supply a deadline for processing, which the Committee could not establish for itself, reflects badly on the Committee.

Concerning the Committee visit to Johannesburg International Airport, the Chair referred to the proposed report, and noted that the recently bolstered SAPS presence would help address the noted problems, which is encouraging in anticipation of the World Sustainable Development Conference to be held in August in Johannesburg. He also remarked that Home Affairs officials at the airport have a somewhat "insular" mentality that could be improved, and that the Committee's "hands on" approach, through its visits to Department facilities throughout the country, helps, among other things, sensitize officials to the need for cooperation with other agencies.

Concerning the upcoming second leg of the Committee SADC study tour, it was confirmed that seven members would participate.

The meeting was adjourned.

Appendix 1
Mr R Niedermeyer
Private Secretary to the Minister of Home Affairs: Dr M G Buthelezi
11 March 2002

Dear Sir
BRIEFING ON IMMIGRATION BILL
1. I have learned from Mr Vermeulen this morning that you were informed by Vanessa Calvert from the Office of the Leader of Government Business that a decision was taken by the Programme Committee that the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs should be invited to address the PC on Home Affairs on the Immigration Bill on Tuesday, 12 March 2002.

2. The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has already invited the Minister to come and brief us on the Immigration Bill on Tuesday, 19 March 2002. For easy reference see hereto attached the letter that was sent to the Minister.

2. We have, however, already scheduled a Committee meeting for Tuesday, 12 March 2002. This meeting and its agenda have been appearing on the Order Paper since last week.

3. However, if the Minister is available to brief the Committee on the Immigration Bill, on the 12th, it will mean that we will have to condense all the four agenda items that appear on the Order Paper, to one hour, and then the Minister will be accommodated in the remaining slot of our meeting.

4. As you can see this will really be unfair to the Minister to be given the last slot of our meeting. He needs to be treated with respect, and therefore we invited him to come and brief us on the 19th in order for the Minister to have ample time for the briefing. In keeping with protocol, we wanted to afford him, as our Minister, a whole Committee meeting to himself.

5. Taking into account the above facts, logic suggests that the Minister should not be merely squeezed in, for appearance sake.

6. The importance of this Bill cannot be overemphasised. That is why it would be imprudent to cut corners, albeit with good intentions, in the treatment of the Bill.

7. We must learn from our Parliamentary legislative experience how some Bills that were treated with zealous haste, created problems after passage.


Yours faithfully

Aubrey Mokoena
Chairperson: Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs

Appendix 2
National Assembly Report of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on visit to the Johannesburg International Airport

A. Motivation
Johannesburg International Airport (J IA) is a vital port of entry that is critical to Home Affairs as our competency and it is also the public face of our country.

The Committee resolved to visit Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) after learning through several media reports of:
· Personal threats made against Mr M Ramano: Chairperson Airports Company South Africa (ACSA);
· Personal threats made against Mr Sullivan who is in charge of National Security of ACSA;
· Security that was not under control at the airport that could lead to the hampering of normal functioning of the airport.

The visit took place on Monday, 25 February 2002, and the Committee thanks the National Assembly for granting us permission to undertake the visit.

The delegation under the leadership of Mr D A Mokoena (ANC), included Mr W M Skhosana (ANC), Mr K W Morwamoche (ANC) and Ms I Mars (IFP).

B. Objective
We wanted to know to what extent the alleged threats impeded on the normal functioning of the workings of the airport especially in respect of Immigration, which falls directly under Home Affairs.

However, because of the interrelatedness of functions, we requested other stakeholders, such as South African Revenue Services (SARS), South African Police Service (SAPS), ACSA, BARSA and Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) to be present at the meeting to shed light on this crucial matter, which is deemed in a very serious light.

The airport is the international face of our country especially now that South Africa will be hosting the World Earth Summit in Johannesburg in August 2002.

C. Findings
1. ACSA Management
Present: Ms M HIahIa, CEO; Mr T Moema, Manager: Security, Mr P du Plessis, Assistant General Manager; Mr B Maseko, Airport General Manager Points raised:

1.1 Threats against the ACSA chairperson, Mr M Ramano and against Mr Sullivan were still prevalent.
1.2 No threats were made against the CEO, Ms HIahIa.

1.3 Security at the airport is under control.

1.4 The police were withdrawn from the airport before the 1994 National Elections as it was perceived that there was no longer a threat of the total onslaught and the airport should be passenger friendly.

1.5 There is a free flow of passengers and their friends and family at the airport. There are no measures to control those boarding and those bidding them fare well.

1.6 Top civil servants and politicians feel offended when subjected to normal security checks.

2. SAPS
Present: Director Gous, Superintendent Motloung, Senior Superintendent Trollia, Senior Superintendent Jacobs, Director Louw
Points raised:

2.1 The layout of the airport hinders the monitoring of goods and people.

2.2 The introduction of operation octopus has greatly improved security at the airport.

2.3 SAPS is working on a joint security system to address organized crime at the airport.

3 SARS
Present: Ms H Tripmakes and Mr P Molanezi

Points raised:

3.1 The VAT declaration desk is too far from the loading point. This spatial factor leaves room for corruption and abuse of VAT claims.

3.2 In terminal 1 there is a door which is always unlocked i.e. people with criminal notions on the airport staff can use this door with ease and undetected.

4. BARSA & AASA
Present: L.J Dundas, B N Maefanlame, J T Morrison and J Crawford

Points raised:
The theft of 9 million US dollars of KLM cargo is suspected to have taken place due to the lack of security at the airport.

5 Immigration Services
Present: Mr Serfontein Points raised:

The overall security situation at the airport is a lot better now that SAPS is again represented at the airport. There are still security gaps i.e. Immigration services has no control over passengers that are in transit. There are no adequate facilities for these passengers and many of these in transit passengers enter our country illegally as control measures are non existent.

D. Recommendations
·
It is recommended that policing at the airport be enhanced beyond its current state.
· Border policing should take control of the airport with regard to access, movement control, crime prevention, crime detection and operational response.

E. Conclusion
·
ACSA is doing a fine job in running the airport. However a lot of back up is still requested from Government because ACSA is almost fully commersialised but is still a state owned enterprise.

· Airport security is of prime importance There should be control in the co-ordination of which taxies are allowed by ACSA to operate at the airport. Currently, taxies that operate at the airport are not accredited by ACSA to operate there. The almost free-for-all manner in which taxies operate at the airport is undesirable and creates factions which will lead to violence. The door is also open for travelers to be utaken for a ride".

· Home Affairs personnel should be more pro-active and co-operate with passengers and staff in other departments at the airport.

· The people we interviewed were very happy that a Parliamentary delegation came to see them in an effort to help them to resolve the problems that they experience at the airport.

Appendix 3
Letter from Democratic Party
11 March 2002

Mr Aubrey Mokoena
Chairperson
Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs
Parliament

IMMIGRATION BILL PROGRAMME

Dear Mr Mokoena

The Democratic Party proposes that the following programme be adopted for the deliberations concerning the Immigration Bill. We have taken into account the Constitutional Court deadline of 2 June 2002.

Only one day be set aside for public hearings, as society and the business community has had an opportunity to present their opinions. This would however, not prevent any individual or organisation from submitting written reports.

The committee systematically works through the Bill, clause by clause.

State Law Adviser should be present at all times, while we deliberate on the Bill. This would assist the process tremendously as they would be able to inform the committee immediately as to whether any suggestions or amendments are in fact legal. They could also help with the wording of clauses it we, as a committee, want them changed.

The relevant persons from the Department of Home Affairs are present in order to clarify issues that may arise. This is common practice in other Portfolio Committee meetings.

We strongly believe that opposition members must be given the right to suggest a time-frame for the deliberations and implementation of the Immigration Bill.

Yours sincerely


GAJ Grobler, MP
Democratic Party
Spokesperson: Home Affairs

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