Speaker, thank you very much for this opportunity.
Santlha ke rata go leboga ba ba tsereng karolo fa re bontshana ka Molaotlhomo o. Se ke se itumelelang thata ke gore tema e e tserweng ke maloko a komiti e bontshitse gore ba itse se re kopanetseng go se siamisa bogolo re lebile bafaladi le tiro e Lefapha la Merero ya Selegae e e dirang go leka go thusa batho ba ba tswang kwa ntle ka makwalo. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Firstly, I would like to thank all the people who participated in the process of amending this Bill. Furthermore, I appreciate the efforts taken by members of this committee, I am convinced that they know why we are here, especially how the issue of foreigners is being dealt with and what the Department of Home Affairs is doing to help them to obtain the relevant documents.] Mhaka yikulukumba leyi nga kona hi leswaku, loko hi fika eAlexandra hi kume kuri na vanhu lava humaka eMozambique vo tala ngopfu. Lava va nga kotiki na ku twisisa mhaka ya hina loko hi vulavula hi xilungu. A hi boheka ku toloka hi vulavula Xichangana kuri hi va byela kuri lexi hi xi endlaka ePalamente I yini leswaku hi kota ku va pfuna hi ti "application" ta vona.
Nawu low hi wu pasisaka namuntlha wu nyika Director-General wa Home Affairs matimba leswaku a kota ku pfula ti "refugee centres". Ma tsundzuka kuri eka nkarhi lowu nga hundza ndzi vulavule hi ti "refugee centres" ta "five", ku nga Marabastad, Rosettenville, Cape Town, Port Elizaberth na Durban.
Matimba lawa hi ma nyikaka Director-General hi leswaku a pfuli tinwana ti "refugee centre" ku fana na va Lebombo na Musina laha ku nga na vanhu vo tala lava humaka eMozambique na Zimbabwe va kota ku pfuniwa hi ku tsarisa. Va nga ha fambi mpfhuka wo leha. Sweswi va famba ku hundza 700 kilometers ku suka eMusina kumbe Libombo ku fika ePitori. Loko va fika ePitori va fika va kuma leswaku a va koti ku pfuniwa. Va suka va ta laha Cape Town hikwalaho mi vonaka Cape Town Harbour kuri na matende lawa ya nga tala lahaya handle. (Translation of Xitsonga paragraphs follows.)
[The most important issue here is that when we arrived in Alexandra we found many people who came from Mozambique. These people could hardly understand our mission due to their incompetence in English. We were obliged to rope in interpreting services to explain our role and responsibilities in Parliament that could also have a bearing on the processing of their applications.
The Bill we are passing today vests the Director-General of Home Affairs with the power to open refugee centres. You will recall that in the past I made mention of five refugee centres, namely Marabastad, Rosettenville, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
The powers entrusted to the Director-General provide for the opening of other refugee centres to speed up the registration process in centres such as Lebombo and Musina where there are many foreign nationals from Mozambique and Zimbabwe. And these people will no longer have to travel very long distances. Presently they travel more than 700 kilometres from Musina to Pretoria. On arriving in Pretoria they still do not get help. That forces them to proceed to other cities like Cape Town; hence there are too many tent erections all around.]
Ngoba inkinga enkulu ukuthi laba bantu uma befika laphaya ePitoli bathola ukuthi abakwazi ukuncedwa ngoba indawo iyodwa kuphela. ukusuka eLimpopo kufuneka uhambe ibanga elingamakhulu ayisikhombisa uzofika eMarabastad.
Uma befika eMarabastad baba baningi ngoba amandla oMnyango awakwazi ukubasiza njengoba sesikhulumile nasekuqaleni ukuthi umngcele wethu yiwo owenza ukuthi uMnyango waseKhaya uxineke kakhulu ngoba lababantu baningi kanti futhi uMnyango waseKhaya awunawo amandla.
Bese-ke bayasuka sebeza eKapa. Uma befika khona bahlale laphaya esikhumuleni semikhumbi njengoba ubona sekuze kwakhiwa namatende, manje balala emiqgeni ngamapulasitiki, izimvula ziyanetha kanjalo.
Manje into eyenziwa yilomthetho uzonikeza uMqondisi Jikelele amandla okuthi avule izindawo la kubonakala ukuthi kuyadingeka ukuthi kube nalezo zindawo. Ngaleyo ndlela leyo sithi-ke thina Khongolose ukuzama ukusiza abakhoseli. (Translation of isiZulu paragraphs follows.)
[The major problem that these people are facing is that on their arrival in Pretoria they find that they cannot be assisted because there is only one place of operation. And then they have to travel for about 700 kilometres from Limpopo to Marabastad.
When these people get to Marabastad, they find that it is overcrowded because the department does not have the capacity to assist all of them. As we have mentioned earlier, our border is the main reason why the department finds itself in this state, because these people come in large numbers and the department does not have the capacity.
They then move to Cape Town. On their arrival there they stay at Cape Town Harbour and you can see that they have even erected marquees there. They have now resorted to sleeping on the roadsides using plastic bags as blankets, when it rains.
This Bill is going to give powers to the director-general to build refugee camps where necessary. And with this, we as the ANC are trying to help refugees.]
Another issue relating to this Bill is the whole question of entitlement; those rights that we are always talking about. Most of the refugees, those who qualify for refugee status, use red identification documents, which clearly set them apart from South African citizens. Most banks, in fact, reject this document.
So we are saying that as part of trying to harmonise relations and restore the rights of refugees - I'm not talking about illegal immigrants - let us begin to accord them the very same rights that the hon Malusi Gigaba has spoken about.
We are signatories to the UN Convention on Refugees and OAU Conventions on Refugees. I think we must begin to fulfil those entitlements and those commitments that we have made as a state. And we are doing that, because if one looks at health and education, most of our refugees are able to access health and educational facilities. Another problem that we must address is that of employers employing illegal immigrants, because it has led to South Africans saying that refugees are taking their jobs. Employers have found an opportunity to exploit the majority of asylum seekers. If you go to some of our restaurants, to some small businesses and spaza shops in town, you will find that the majority of people that are employed there are foreigners, and that is a fact that we must recognise.
I spoke to the Minister of Labour the other day and told him that it's time that we tightened the screws in this regard. There is nowhere in the world where this situation would be allowed. The immigration law says that anyone who employs an illegal immigrant will be found guilty and will be sentenced to jail without the option of a fine, or something to that effect.
I therefore think that we need to strengthen that arm of government and make sure that the inspectorate of the Department of Labour, together with Home Affairs' immigration officers, are able to enforce the law by making sure that nobody employs an illegal immigrant. Doing this would definitely help prevent the kind of problems that we are faced with. [Applause.]
On that note, I do not want to waste much time. I know that I was given 30 minutes to speak. [Interjections.] I beg your pardon? [Interjections.] Well, the hon member is speaking on behalf of the employers. He says that they don't have a choice, or something like that. [Interjections.] It's fine then, I didn't hear you well.
What we are saying is that this Bill will definitely go a long way towards addressing the challenges that we are faced with. On 20 June, which is Refugee Day, we and the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs will be hosting a refugee dialogue. This will be an engagement between us and NGOs that are playing a critical role in dealing with issues of refugees.
We have invited a number of departments to come and participate so as to enable us to find a way of dealing with the policy on integration, which is a very fundamental policy of the ANC. There is nowhere else in the world where you will find such a policy.
However, we need to give a little bit of expression to that policy by engaging and making sure that people understand what it is that we are talking about when we speak of integration. It is not integration if you just tell people to go and find a place to stay. There are certain things that we need to fix so that this problem does not occur again.
On that note, I want to thank you very much, members, and I want to thank you, Comrade Naledi, for your wonderful response during question time. We appreciate the kind of leadership we have in Parliament.