CLAUDIA PIZZOCRI: Corrupt home affairs needs real change

An inherent requirement for the functioning of any democratic government, and one of the democratic values entrenched in the SA constitution, is accountability.

A duty of accountability is imposed as a constitutional imperative upon organs of state, the executive, the judiciary and all public functionaries. Yet lack of accountability within the department of home affairs has been systemic and sadly accepted as inherent for decades. 

As with all his predecessors, newly appointed home affairs minister Leon Schreiber has vowed to clamp down on fraudulent activities within his department. Let’s be clear — corruption is a two-faced coin. In all transactions there must be an offer and a demand. As with the saying “it takes two to tango”, a bribe needs a willing recipient and the capturing of a government department requires a corruptible keeper and a complacent system.

Corruption within home affairs is a long-standing issue of custodianship. Between January and April, with a persistent reported “backlog” of applications (which according to Schreiber is almost 306,000) the department reported to the parliamentary monitoring group that: “The department experiences challenges concerning the legitimacy of relationships being claimed and cited in the applications ...some foreign nationals have taken advantage and follow corrupt methods to legitimise themselves, family members, friends and others ... 85% of the backlog falls under these two categories where massive corruption and collusion was detected.”

Mistrust and suspicion define the processing of visa and permit applications. This is a common denominator in cultures in which xenophobia can run rife, and in which the public loses faith in government. Lack of resources and appropriate legal training, corruption and mismanagement in home affairs are neither novel nor a product of the pandemic lockdowns. The Covid-19 backlog only worsened and made more conspicuous pre-existing conditions of disarray in home affairs. 

Rooting out

An historical failure to adequately train bureaucrats in the values and principles of constitutional governance, and policies driven by a security cluster-orientated response to immigration issues, coupled with complacency, have defined and lowered standards over time, damaging the relationships between the department, citizens and foreigners.    

With the objective of fighting the scourge of corruption, the government has over the years introduced several initiatives to prevent it, with the longer-term objective of systemically rooting it out. A national anti-corruption strategy was developed to meet international standards, the anti-corruption task team was established to fast track high-priority investigations and prosecutions on corruption-related matters through a multidisciplinary and integrated operational approach, and within the department a counter corruption unit was born. 

Yet, though SA has implemented and promoted strategies for preventing corruption, its effective application remains challenging in practice, and home affairs represents a blatant example of this shortfall. A number of causes célèbre have drawn widespread public and media attention. The Lubisi report, preceded by an amaBhungane investigative journalism effort and report, partially exposed the rotten foundation the department stands on. The scale and extent of the internal corrosion is equivalent to the unwelcome opening of a Pandora’s box due to its complexity and ramifications.   

The names that stick with the public are mostly reflective of only one side of the coin: the Gupta brothers and their alleged “mastermind”, Ashu Chawla; Shepherd Bushiri and his wife, Mary; and  actress Leva Andrejevaite. All are cases that due to their nature are easily weaponised to deflect attention from the root issue of home affairs’ failure to fulfil its constitutional mandate.

Criminal proceedings

Foreigners in general thus often bear the brunt on all sides of these storms, becoming easy targets of xenophobic sentiments. A glaring example of this dynamic is the scandal surrounding one of the contestants in the Miss SA pageant, Chidimma Adetshina, and her family, now publicly pilloried as criminals after one of the quickest (less than 24 hours) citizenship verifications yet performed by the department. 

Even when made public, the names of the often high-ranking officials involved in these and other less newsworthy cases quickly fall into oblivion. On the rare occasions when disciplinary action is implemented, it is hardly ever followed by criminal proceedings.

Such names only sporadically resurface in inquiries made by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group before the home affairs portfolio committee when seeking answers from the department on the status and progress of investigations. As recently as March the portfolio committee expressed “concern to hear that some of the implicated [officials] are still in their posts, representing a risk to the investigation ... which could lead to further problems in the processing of permits and visas”.

Corrupt officials who know they will not be held accountable take advantage of the situation to continue their illegal activities. Lengthy and costly disciplinary hearings — which, if successful, lead to the suspension or firing of the involved officials and in some instances are undercut by resignations — seem to be dramatically disproportionate remedies compared with the many unlawful deportations and human rights violations — often tearing families apart — that the department has allowed to take place over the years.

Disregards orders

Home affairs seems somehow to have managed to survive within its own ruins surrounded by walls of omertà, immune to its own disease and, like Pontius Pilate, repeatedly washing its hands of all responsibility. Accountability in any government department should start from the top and extend to transparency and compliance with the constitution and court orders.

Too often the department simply disregards court orders, displaying dangerous contempt for the judiciary and its crucial role in society. Lack of good leadership, a weak organisational culture and inadequate accountability systems are all contributing factors to the spread of fraud and corruption. 

In his recent budget vote speech Schreiber stated: “The department is now inundated with costly court cases that it cannot afford. In many instances these cases stem from a simple inability to process applications in a timely manner, forcing clients to seek judicial relief. In other cases they reflect a serious breakdown in trust between the department and stakeholders. 

“This crippling situation cannot be allowed to continue. It consumes valuable resources that can be better spent on other critical priorities.”

This harsh reality has been blindly disregarded for too long, placing an unnecessary burden on the judiciary and the courts. 

Each time the department of home affairs gets a new boss we are left wondering whether it will finally manage the necessary restorations and overhaul, or be overcome by the same issues that have so effectively held us hostage for so long. Only time will tell whether this time will be different. 

• Pizzocri is CEO at Eisenberg & Associates.