Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo complained on Tuesday that she has been the victim of racial profiling by immigration officers at the city’s international airport.
She made the claim at the launch in Cape Town of the Department of Home Affairs’ immigration branch, an upgrading of what was previously only a chief directorate.
Speaking to an audience that included President Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, she welcomed the establishment of the branch, but said there are still challenges at the city airport.
”You still experience that old order where it’s your colour that speaks. Even if you move to the line that is saying you are declaring nothing, it still … depends who you are,” she said.
The people who are pulled aside for checks are still in most cases those who have a ”darker skin”, whether they are South African or not.
”I’m pulled on the side every time I come from some international trip,” she said.
Mapisa-Nqakula said in reply she has taken note of the mayor’s remarks, and that her department has decided to put up separate counters for passport holders from African countries.
”[This is] at least to restore the dignity of Africans,” she said. ”And we hope that this should make a difference.”
She also said some members of the Pan African Parliament, which has been meeting in Gauteng, complained about how they had been handled by immigration officials.
The matter has been resolved, and the MPs issued with multi-entry visas valid for a year.
Mapisa-Nakula also announced that on Friday, South Africa will sign a visa waiver agreement with Mozambique, under which certain categories of traveller from either country will be exempted from visa requirements for 30-day visits.
This is meant primarily to encourage legal instead of illegal entry. However, those who chose illegal means to enter South Africa will meet the full might of the law.
Mbeki said the visa issue had been raised by the Mozambican government, which pointed out that Mozambicans wanting to enter South Africa were required to pay visa fees in dollars.
The effect was to impose an ”intolerable hardship” on Mozambicans, because there is a food shortage in that country and many of them shop in South Africa.
”And here we were saying you can’t come and buy a loaf of bread unless you deposit United States dollars,” he said.
Mozambicans have been working in South Africa for more than a century, and their cross-border movement is not for illegal settlement.
”We took a position which I thought was quite wrong. I’m very glad we are correcting that,” Mbeki said.
Mapisa-Nqakula said the first of 50 000 new ”smart” identity cards for refugees will be issued from May 1, instead of the paper documents currently being handed out, and that the department is finalising arrangements for the roll-out of four million smart ID cards for South Africans by June next year.
Tuesday’s launch of the immigration branch was accompanied by the unveiling of new uniforms for its officials: khaki shirts and longs and blue jackets, with an array of epaulettes, taking the place of the white shirts and grey longs they have been wearing.
The branch’s vehicles have also been repainted in a uniform maroon. — Sapa