Letter: Are foreigners not welcome?

Over these past few years, life for foreign citizens living in South Africa has become increasingly inconvenient. It has come to a stage where you have to ask yourself, what exactly is the Department of Home Affairs trying to achieve?

Let me start off with a personal example: My Swiss wife and I have been married for 34 years. We have two adult children in their 30s, both of whom are South African citizens, as well as one South African grandchild. In spite of this, my wife’s application for SA citizenship was turned down with the reason that her permanent resident permit was only issued in 2013.

She can only reapply for citizenship in 2023, 10 years after the permit was issued. The fact that the permit was even issued in 2013 was the result of us having mandated a lawyer to initiate proceedings against the Department of Home Affairs after my wife’s PR application submitted in 2011 was swallowed by a black hole.

Furthermore, since 2015, permanent residents no longer received a sticker in their passport confirming their South African PR status. Whenever a permanent resident travels abroad, he or she must carry the original permit with them. This is highly inconvenient.

Apart from the permit being a flimsy A4 piece of paper, a permit cannot be replaced if lost or stolen. If a permit is lost you have to make an application to have your permanent resident status confirmed, a process which is said to take at least 12 months.

Even worse, should you lose your permit while overseas and hence not be in a position to present an original document when coming back, entry into the country can be denied. Certified copies of the permits are not accepted by border control.

Finally, the South Africa smart ID card. The problem? Only people who were actually born in South Africa can apply for such a card. When the card was introduced in 2013, it was mentioned that certain system adjustments were still necessary but that, by about 2015, all individuals with a ID number would be able to apply for a smart ID. Nothing ever happened. Perhaps the card isn’t so smart after all.

Presumably the objective of all these inconveniences is to make South Africa unattractive for foreign citizens. The plan may well work. The only problem is, those who are going to leave will be those who helped create jobs and who have somewhere else to go to. The unemployed refugee who illegally entered the country, will continue to stay put.

MARKUS KÄMPF

Simbithi