Marion Edmunds
THE Home Affairs Department has quietly dropped the fee charged to foreigners to marry South African citizens.
In July this year, Home Affairs introduced regulations which made it obligatory for foreigners to pay a set charge of almost R7 000 should they wish to marry South African citizens. At the time, the department appeared impervious to cries of outrage from South Africans with foreign-born spouses.
One of the affected South Africans phoned the Mail & Guardian this week to say he had been told by officials the charge had been dropped from October 18. Home Affairs has made no formal announcement to that effect. It is not known whether those who paid the amount between July and October will be reimbursed.
Home Affairs is also failing to communicate adequately about the appointment of new Immigration Selection Boards (ISBs). The department is having to re-open nominations for provincial ISBs in four provinces after only two nominations each from the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape and North West were received and only four nominations from the Free State by the deadline.
The ISBs will decide which foreigners should be awarded permanent residence in this country. The current ISB, which was appointed by the Minister of Home Affairs before 1994 without consultation, is steeped in controversy after its ruling on British-born David Foulds was dismissed in the Rand Supreme Court earlier this year.
The ISB rejected Foulds’s application for permanent residence, despite the fact that he runs a lucrative business which employs South Africans and has a turnover of almost R4- million. Instead of re-evaluating Foulds’s application as the court instructed, the board had indicated that it would appeal against the judgement.
Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the fee charged for foreign wives had been dropped because it was “unfair and unconstitutional”. This also means no fee will in future be levied for dependent children or aged or infirm members of the family.