Nwabisa Msutwana-Stemela
20 December 2008
Four Zimbabwean men were beaten up at the Nyanga Home Affairs offices on Thursday, apparently after accusing officials of taking bribes to serve other people first.
There have been repeated complaints of corruption at the Nyanga office, where refugees are processed, and now the department's anti-corruption team is investigating.
In the latest shocking incident, Victor Syinuke, 24, from Zimbabwe was stabbed in the stomach by other asylum seekers for wanting to know why people were called up when others had been waiting all night and were first in the queue.
Syinuke said he and his friends had arrived at Home Affairs at 8am on Wednesday so they would be first in the queue the following morning.
But on the Thursday some asylum seekers, who were at the back of the queue, were called in first "to have their papers sorted".
The four were beaten up by people in the crowd and Syinuke was stabbed and slightly injured.
Syinuke said: "The main issue is about money; if you do not have money you will not be served."
He said it was difficult being a refugee because they were often harassed by police who wanted to check their residence permits. His papers had expired on December 4 and, although he had been back to Nyanga often, his papers had still not been renewed.
He said the Nyanga office was always crowded and he accused officials there of being behind the "chaos and commotion".
"They physically abuse us if we complain about the manner in which things are done. My papers expired on December 4 and I have been going to Home Affairs since then. And even though I always arrive early I still have not been helped because I do not have money."
Bright Nyamande, who has been in Cape Town for three months, said he had lost his papers, which had been issued in Musina in Limpopo. Now he was worried that he would be told to go back to Musina to renew them. He said he was now tired of being sent from pillar to post.
Braam Hanekom, chairperson of refugee lobby group Passop, said they had lobbied people, politicians and the media to put pressure on the department to increase the number of people processed in a day from 20 to 150. The department did not have the capacity to service the number of immigrants coming in.
He said officials targeted people who were smartly dressed because they believed they had money.
But this was not the major problem - corruption was. And he accused refugees who slept outside the office of collusion in corruption, acting as agents for people prepared to pay bribes.
Siobhan McCarthy, Home Affairs national spokesperson, said corruption had been a problem in the department for years and eradicating it was not easy. The department needed a dedicated team and a "multi-pronged" strategy to deal with the problem.
She said more than 300 staff had been suspended or fired for corruption, and the department was continuing its efforts.
"The department has installed new systems that make it difficult for officials to by-pass the system and issue fraudulent documents."
McCarthy said the department's internal counter-corruption unit, headed by Constance Moitse, worked closely with the police and the National Intelligence Agency to crack down on corrupt officials.
"In the past persons would make multiple applications and if they were not successful in one office they would go to another. We are now able to pick up such cases using our new technology, and the number of duplicate applications has been reduced.
"Officials suspected of corrupt activities are disciplined through an internal disciplinary process," she said. When necessary, people could be suspended or fired, and criminal charges were laid with the police, so that people went to trial in court.
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