Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Monday accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of “scraping the bottom” to find issues with which to attack her.
The DA’s statement on immigration issued on Sunday was astonishing, her spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.
“The statement is nothing but an attempt to scrape the bottom to find issues with which the DA can attack the minister,” he said.
In its statement on Sunday, the DA criticised Dlamini-Zuma for, among other things, “turning to Cosatu for solutions” to regulate the movement of people over South African borders.
DA spokesperson Juanita Terblanche also lambasted Dlamini-Zuma for failing to address staff shortages in her department, and urged
steps to root out corruption.
Mamoepa said, instead of “this political bluster”, the DA spokesperson should have familiarised herself with the reasons for Dlamini-Zuma’s consultations with the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) central executive committee members last week.
Firstly, Dlamini-Zuma had received the approval and support of the Cabinet to embark on a series of consultations with key stakeholders regarding the development of a new immigration policy.
In pursuance of this objective, she had already held consultations with Business Unity SA and now recently with Cosatu.
“The DA needs to be reminded, that whatever their views, Cosatu remains one of the key stakeholders in the development of such a new immigration policy which seeks to separate economic migrants from asylum seekers,” he said.
Thus, Dlamini-Zuma would continue to consult all other outstanding relevant stakeholders, without fear, favour or prejudice in the development of the new immigration policy.
As far as the staffing of the department was concerned, Dlamini-Zuma had since her appointment last year moved swiftly to fill critical posts in the department, including the posts of the chief financial officer, head of human resources, and now recently the appointment of the new director general of the department.
Concerning incidents of corruption, Dlamini-Zuma had given her political support to beefing up the department’s anti-corruption measures.
The anti-corruption unit had scored a number of successes in its war against corruption, including the suspension of over 159 officials in October/November last year, he said.–Sapa