SA
The North-West government is bracing itself for an outcry over a massive influx of Chinese immigrants, reports Marion Edmunds
AN immigration consultancy is making preparations to bring 55 000 Chinese families into South Africa next year from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.
The Gauteng-based company, Exec-Immigration, confirmed this week that they had landed a contract to handle the massive influx with the developers of the Dragon City Project adjoining Potchefstroom, the linked Lion’s Estate Project in Randburg and China Village outside Pretoria.
A document from the office of North-West Premier Popo Molefe indicates the Dragon City developers are bracing themselves for a public outcry over the arrival of thousands of Chinese.
Dragon City is a grandiose scheme which aims to build a Chinese mini-city on more than 4 000 hectares of land. The developers claim that within six years it will comprise550 000 housing units, about 500 factories, warehouses, shopping centres, schools, crches, a hospital, a hotel and casino, a cultural centre, sporting and training facilities and clubs, an exhibition centre, a floating waterfront and a railway station.
The chief executive of Exec-Immigration, Isak van der Merwe, said they were handling immigration applications for Dragon City Project (Pty) Ltd and Tai Ross Investments, which is handling the China Village Development.
Full details of the Dragon City project are expected to be announced on November 12. But a memorandum of understanding signed by the North-West government and the project directors – Larry Botes and Celina Zheng – says the city will be built with private finance and is backed by all the premiers of China’s 15 provinces.
Zheng, a businesswoman, claims the Chinese provincial premiers are all her “intimate friends” and “have given their blessing” to the project.
The document says: “We anticipate a major public debate once the news breaks … and the project will need the assistance of the provincial government in dealing with each of these as it crops up.”
Botes, a property developer, says in the document that they expect opposition to the project to come from Cosatu, opposition parties, vested business interests, conservative Potchefstroom townsfolk and members of the public complaining about the importation of so many Chinese.
Already there have been reports of Potchefstroom dominees preaching against the “yellow peril” from their pulpits. Yet Dominee Jurie Wessels of the Dutch Reformed Moederkerk in Potchefstroom told the Mail & Guardian that the church had not taken a position against the Chinese.
“It would change Potchefstroom but economically speaking I would be very glad they came, provided they would make an input and not just extract. There is a division of opinion in the town but it’s the people’s opinions, not the church’s.”
Botes did not respond to requests by the M&G for an interview. According to the document, however, he has been compiling responses and rebuttals in anticipation of the objections to give to Molefe “as the news breaks.”
Although the document says 90% of the Chinese families would return to China after two-year contracts, the directors are anticipating problems with the Department of Home Affairs and asking for Molefe’s help to fast-track applications for work permits and visas. They suggest Molefe set up a one-stop Home Affairs office in Dragon City to facilitate paper work.
In a glossy pamphlet presenting the Dragon City Project, Botes claims: “The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr [Mangosuthu] Buthelezi, has given his assurance that an office would be established in Beijing and one in Johannesburg, to handle only Dragon City applications for visas, work permits and permanent residence for the carriers of both private and business passports, thus ensuring that all applications would be dealt with speedily and efficiently.”
The pamphlet also promises every assistance from local and provincial governments, and tax benefits.
Van der Merwe said that Home Affairs would approve the families’ applications for work permits or permanent residence permits because each family would be bringing “at least R1,5-million” for investment in South Africa. A large number of the families would be working on a contract basis.
Exec-Immigration, which claims to have a 98% success rate in getting people through immigration, charges US$4 000 per family if they apply to Home Affairs from outside the country, and R5 000 if they make their application through Exec-Immigration from inside South Africa.
Van der Merwe is a private businessman. His company employs former Home Affairs Department officials. He denied that he would be a millionaire by the time he had finished processing all the Chinese applications. His company was just trying to help people through the difficult process of immigration, he said. He had got the idea for starting the company from his brother- in-law who heads the South African Police Services aliens unit.
Gerhard du Preez, of Tai Ross Investments, confirmed he intended trying to bring 3 800 Chinese families to settle in China Village north-east of Pretoria.
He said the project would include a golf course, hotel and factories. He said building the development would create 6 000 jobs and maintaining it another 6 000 jobs.
The chairman of the Chinese Association of South Africa, Eric Yensson, told the M&G that his organisation had not been consulted about the projects and he was sceptical about them. The Taiwanese embassy and Chinese representatives in South Africa said they had no knowledge of the projects.
Earlier this year Business Day newspaper reported that China had promised an US$18- billion investment in Dragon City. This was equivalent to eight times South Africa’s total gold and foreign exchange reserves and was “particularly breathtaking”.