Marion Edmunds
IT’S being called the Group Areas Act for immigrants. Foreigners who acquire permanent residence status in the new South Africa will not be allowed to move home from one province to another for a year after their application is approved.
Nor will they be able to change jobs without permission from the Home Affairs Department, and they will have to pay a fee of R360 to apply for such permission.
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) say that both these provisions of immigration law are unconstitutional because they contradict two rights in the bill of rights: the freedom of movement, and the right to engage freely in economic activity and to pursue a livelihood anywhere in the national territory.
“Although restriction of these rights is permitted, such restriction must itself be constitutional and, in our opinion, the present restriction by the Home Affairs Ministry is unconstitutional … LHR is firmly of the belief that the Aliens Control Act is in any case out-dated,” said Jeff Handmaker, an immigration specialist at LHR.
Home Affairs representative Hennie Meyer said this week that a permanent residence permit was approved on the condition that a foreigner had employment in South Africa, and a change of employment would mean the permit should be renegotiated.
Potential immigrants and foreigners are being told that this and other tariffs are being charged to cover the administrative cost of processing applications. Sources in the Home Affairs department say the plan is to make the department financially self-sufficient, without burdening the South African tax-payer.
British-born industrialist Peter Evans, who is battling to get permanent residence for his family, said from his home in Northern Province this week: “It is impossible to make it here. Everything is against you … hijackings, poor telephone networks and now Home Affairs. As soon as I make enough profit from my export business, we will be moving to southern Europe.”
Evans is being charged R11 000 to get application forms for permanent residence for his family. He said the Home Affairs official in Pietersburg said that once the application was granted he would have to pay another unspecified fee. His wife has been waiting for two years to hear whether or not her application has been accepted.
“They are asking for foreign investment, but making it very difficult for people to come in and invest,” he said. Evans has been forwarding details of his struggle to the National Party, hoping they will take it up on a political level.
Meantime, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi, after prompting from cabinet, appealed again this week to foreign companies operating in South Africa to employ local South Africans above “aliens”, saying that such a move would demonstrate support for the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
Buthelezi employs foreign-born Mario Ambrosini in his department as a constitutional adviser.