Thabo Bester Update; with Minister

Home Affairs

18 April 2023
Chairperson: Mr M Chabane (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

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Tabled Committee Reports

The Portfolio Committee received a comprehensive report from the Minister of Home Affairs on the circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of the fugitive Thabo Bester and his partner, Nandipha Magudumana.

The Minister described the lengths to which the Department had gone to establish the identity of Bester, who had no identity document (ID) number; the multiple passports found in possession of the couple; the death certificate issued for the burnt body found in Bester's cell; the "luxury flight" to transport 14 people to and from Tanzania; and the documents required to secure their deportation.

Members expressed their frustration that the lack of identity documentation for Bester had created such chaos, and led to the country being considered a "laughing stock." They were also concerned that he was not recorded on any of the country's databases, and felt that his case had revealed a weakness in the system, particularly as they had learnt about the high number of undocumented prisoners in South African jails.

Other issues raised included concerns over issuing passports (with the Gupta brothers cited as an example), the possibility of corrupt officials assisting in illegal border crossings, issuing death certificates without an ID document, and why R1.4 million had been spent to retrieve two fugitives. However, the Committee commended the Minister and the Department for their actions in the case, and for keeping the public up to date with occurrences.

The Department was unable to make a presentation on the General Electoral Laws Amendment Policy as the document had reached the Committee too late for Members to review it thoroughly. The Committee also decided to postpone consideration of the budget vote report and the annual business plan until the next meeting to allow Members more time to review them.

Meeting report

The Chairperson said that the first 30 minutes of the meeting would be dedicated to considering the minutes of previous meetings, after which the Minister, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and other stakeholders would join the meeting.

Consideration of Minutes

The Chairperson moved on to the consideration of the minutes of meetings dated 19 and 22 July 2022, and 4, 10 and 23 August 2022.

The minutes of the meetings were adopted.

Mr Adam Salmon, Committee Content Advisor, said that a decision had previously been made to consider the minutes of ten meetings to address the backlog. This decision was taken during the strategic planning workshop, where Mr K Pillay (ANC) was the Acting Chairperson.

Due to time constraints, the Chairperson said that the Committee would begin to consider the minutes of ten meetings at the next meeting.

Mr Pillay agreed that the consideration of further minutes could begin at the next meeting.

The Chairperson asked that more Members participate in considering the minutes so that their opinions were clear.

DHA presentation on electoral laws amendment policy delayed

The Chairperson said he had received communication from the Minister requesting the Committee to defer the presentation by the DHA on the general electoral laws amendment policy and the decision on the Executive or Committee Bill. He explained that there had been a misunderstanding between the teams dealing with the matter. The presentation that had been submitted to the Committee had not been properly reviewed and consulted upon. He said the presentation would be rescheduled until the DHA had dealt with the matter.

Mr A Roos (DA) said that it was concerning that the presentation had been delayed because the Committee would be on leave the following week, which meant that the presentation would be delivered in two weeks. It was important that the presentation not be delayed any further.

Mr Pillay said the delay could be a good thing. It allowed for the DHA to present a finalised and more comprehensive presentation, and the Committee would be able to engage more deeply with the presentation.

Mr Roos requested that the presentation be made available to the Committee a few days before it would be presented. The Members needed time to review and consult with their respective caucuses. The two extra weeks should allow for this.

Mr Salmon said there had been no clarity from the legal team on whether to proceed with a Committee or Executive Bill. There might have been consensus that a Committee Bill was needed, but this was not confirmed. It was important to decide on the matter so the Committee could use the following two weeks to draft the Bill. He commented that the President had signed the Electoral Act the previous day.

Mr Pillay said that the Committee had had a discussion on the nature of the Bill, but nothing had been formalised. Discussions had seemed to sway in the direction of a Committee Bill, because the process would be more efficient and effective. The presentation presenting both options made it clear that an Executive Bill would take much longer.

The Chairperson welcomed the Minister, Department officials, the Parliamentary Legal Services, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Chairperson and team to the virtual meeting platform.

The Chairperson highlighted the case of Thabo Bester and acknowledged the work of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services.

He commended the Minister and the DHA on opening the new Home Affairs office in Menlyn, the modernisation of the newly opened offices, and the increased access to services. He hoped that the programme would be extended to rural areas.

He thanked the Deputy Minister for leading the team on strategic planning and for conducting oversight.

The Chairperson acknowledged the President’s approval of the Electoral Amendment Bill. He said that the Department and the IEC would be able to deal with any issues regarding the consequential amendments. The Committee was taking note of the responses from interested parties.

He said he had received a letter from the Minister which affected the agenda of the Committee meeting. There had been a miscommunication between the teams working on the presentation. The document sent to the Committee was a draft and was not ready because consultations were still taking place. The Committee had accepted the letter on the condition that the document or presentation would not be delayed further. The Department could share the document at least three days before the presentation occurred so that Members could thoroughly engage with it. He emphasised that this was an urgent matter in preparation for the election. He added that the briefing by the DHA on the general electoral laws amendment policy would not be dealt with in the meeting. He deferred to the Minister for further comments.

Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Minister of Home Affairs, apologised for the delay and thanked the Committee for its understanding in rescheduling the presentation. He said that the document shared with the Committee was not his draft. Due to the Thabo Bester case and the legal team that drafted the Electoral Amendment Act signed into law by the President, they had been busy with the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) issues for the whole week. This meant that there had been no consultation. He said that the document being released had been a mistake. He would gladly attend the next available meeting to revisit the presentation.

The Chairperson brought up the issue of ZEP. He noted that there was a pending judgment, and that it would be better to deal with the matter once the judgment had been made. The Department should not speak on the ZEP issue because it might interfere with the judicial process.

Revised agenda

The Chairperson said that the agenda for the meeting should be updated to include an update on the Thabo Bester case by the Minister, in place of the DHA presentation.

Mr Mosotho Moepya, IEC Chairperson, asked that the IEC be dismissed from the meeting because the presentation they were concerned with was no longer on the agenda.

The Chairperson permitted the IEC team and the Parliamentary Legal Services to leave the meeting, and thanked them for attending and understanding why the presentation had been postponed.

He said the Committee would receive an update from the Minister on the Thabo Bester case and related issues. He invited the Minister to begin.

Minister's update on Thabo Bester issue

Minister Motsoaledi said that a press conference was held on Friday, 14 April, to provide the country with clarity on the case of Thabo Bester. He was happy to provide the Committee with an update because the issue was still developing, and it would allow Members to ask informed questions. He had not prepared a presentation or document for the update but would try to be as comprehensive as possible.

He said that the Department of Home Affairs were custodians of the identities of people. The DHA had become involved in the Thabo Bester issue when it was discovered that somebody had burnt to death in a prison cell presumed to be Thabo Bester – later discovered as having escaped from the prison – and Home Affairs had issued a death certificate for him. The DHA’s interest had been in discovering who had died, and the issues surrounding the death certificate.

Who was Thabo Bester?

Another concern of the DHA was who Thabo Bester actually was. He explained that the country had three databases of people within the country’s borders. The National Population Register (NPR) was a register of all the births, deaths, marriages, identity documents (IDs) and passports of South African citizens. This information and the necessary biometric information were posted on the NPR electronic system, the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS). This was the first system that was used to find Thabo Bester. The second database was the National Immigration Information System (NIIS), which registered all asylum-seekers and refugees who declared their presence in the country. He commented that those who did not officially declare that they were asylum-seekers or refugees were considered illegal immigrants, and would not be found on any database. The NIIS did not record an asylum-seeker’s birth, marriage, or death – but this was in the process of being changed. The third database, the VISA Adjudication System (VAS), recorded everyone in the country who came via a VISA or permit.

Minister Motsoaledi said that the Department had searched for Thabo Bester within the three databases. Two Thabo Besters had been found through the NPR -- a 19-year-old male excluded from the search, and a 40-year-old male in Ratanda, Heidelberg. When the 40-year-old was visited, it was discovered that he had already presented himself to the police and it was concluded that he was not the accused. When checking the other systems, no other Thabo Besters were found.

The DHA was made aware that Thabo Bester sometimes used the alias ‘TK Nkwana.’ He said that 16 individuals with that name were found on the NPR, nine of whom were children, and one a woman. He said they used HANIS to get photos of the remaining six and concluded that none was Thabo Bester. The alias ‘TK Nkwana’ appeared several times in the VAS and NIIS, but none of the photos matched Thabo Bester.

The DHA had been on the verge of declaring Thabo Bester an illegal immigrant until a woman came forward claiming to be his mother. She gave the Department the deed of birth, which stated that the birth took place at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on 30 June 1986. The woman’s story was confirmed after consulting archives at the hospital. The mother’s name was Meisie Maria (Bester) Mabaso. The DHA still had many questions regarding his identity, because he did not appear in any of the databases. Upon further investigation, the DHA found a woman, Nina Bester, who was estimated to have been born between 1910 and 1920, based on the age of her daughters, Johanna Bester (Magagula), born 1938 and another in 1940. Ms Magagula had given birth to four children, one of which was Meisie Bester, and Thabo Bester had been the first of her four children.

The Minister said that the DHA had been confused about why there was no official record of any of Maria Bester’s children. Meisie had explained that her mother (Magagula) had worked in a kitchen and on a farm simultaneously, and had not been allowed to leave and therefore did not register Meisie. Meisie was unregistered until the age of 37 in 2002, when Magagula died. The younger sister, born in 1940, took over the care of Magagula’s children, and Meisie was registered under the name ‘Mabaso,’ not ‘Bester’. The Minister concluded that an informal adoption had taken place, where the aunt had adopted Magagula’s children, and this was the reason that no Bester was found on the register.

He explained that in 2002, all of Meisie’s children besides Thabo Bester had been registered under the name Mabaso. This was why they did not appear in any of the Department’s databases. The reason Thabo Bester was not registered at Home Affairs with his siblings was because he had disappeared that year, and no one knew where he had gone.

Minister Motsoaledi said that Ms Mabaso gave the DHA the name of the school that Thabo Bester had attended in the south of Johannesburg. The school had a record of Thabo Bester starting school on 14 January 1997 at the age of 11. He had registered at the school without an ID number -- only his date of birth was used. The Minister confirmed that the date of birth on the school records coincided with the date of birth in the hospital records. Mr Robert Ferreira had brought Thabo Bester to the school as a ‘guardian,’ but the DHA had not been able to contact Mr Ferreira. The Department would try to contact Mr Ferreira to ask a few questions.

The school had records of Thabo Bester attending until he was in grade 5, and that he had disappeared that year. The school's recorded date of disappearance was the same as the year that Meisie Mabaso had stated. It was possible that Mr Ferreira was Ms Magagula’s employer, because he presumably cared for Thabo Bester due to Ms Mabaso’s young age. Based on what the Department had found out, they had somewhat established who Thabo Bester was.

The multiple passports

The Minister said that the next concern was about passports. Multiple passports had been found in possession of Thabo Bester and Ms Nandipha Magudumana in Tanzania. Bester was found with a United States passport in the name of ‘Tom Williams Kelly.’ The DHA did not know if the passport was authentic, but it was the only one Bester was carrying. The passport had not been used at any of the 72 ports of entry.

Minister Motsoaledi said that the DHA had not been interested in Nandipha Magudumana until she had been found with Thabo Bester in Tanzania. All the information had been found in the NPR, and there were no issues with her records. Ms Magudumana had been found in possession of three passports. The first passport was hers. She was issued a passport in 2007, which expired in 2017. She was issued another passport in 2017, which would expire in 2027, and was therefore a valid passport with which she was found in Tanzania. The last time she had used that particular passport was leaving via the Beitbridge border post on 9 May 2022, and on 12 May 2022, entering OR Tambo airport. The other two passports she had been carrying were legitimate passports, but they did not belong to Ms Magudumana. The other two passports belonged to Dr Mmereka Patience Martha Ntshani.

Minister Motsoaledi said that Dr Ntshani had been issued a passport in 2012, which would expire in 2022. In 2019, Dr Ntshani went to the police to report the passport as stolen. Dr Ntshani was able to get a new passport in 2019 because she had reported her previous passport as stolen. On 27 March 2023, after the Thabo Bester story became public, she went to the police to report that she had given her 2019 passport to Nandipha Magudumana and TK Nkwana (Thabo Bester’s alias) because they had shared a project in the US. The pair were meant to apply for Dr Ntshani’s work citizenship in the US. The Minister said that he was not sure about the truthfulness of Dr Ntshani’s statement, because she herself would have had to apply for work citizenship. Dr Ntshani had gone to the police after she had heard that the people she gave her passport to had escaped the country and were being looked for by the police. He said that on 6 April 2023, Dr Ntshani had gone to Home Affairs to apply for another passport, but had not collected the passport yet. While Dr Ntshani’s 2012 and 2019 passports were found in Nandipha Magudumana’s possession, they had not been used in 2023 and had last been used by Dr Ntshani in December 2022.

The death certificate

The Minister spoke about the death certificate issued for Thabo Bester after the burnt body had been found. He said a pathologist in the Eastern Cape had been asked to perform the post-mortem after the burnt body had been found in Thabo Bester’s cell. The pathologist had believed that he was performing a post-mortem on Thabo Bester and had issued a DHA-1663 form, which was the only authority that allowed Home Affairs to issue a death certificate. The DHA-1663 form that was issued had no ID number, because Thabo Bester did not have an ID number. When Home Affairs was faced with those circumstances, a handwritten death certificate would be issued. He explained that a handwritten death certificate would not reflect in the NPR, and was not recorded electronically. This was often done with illegal immigrants who passed away in South Africa. Because Thabo Bester was alive, the death certificate belonged to nobody and had become null and void.

The "luxury" return flight

The Minister addressed claims that Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana had been brought back to South Africa on a ‘luxury flight.’ He said that the plane that went to Tanzania to fetch Bester and Magudumana was not hired by police, but by the DHA. The Tanzanian authorities had decided that Bester and Magudumana would be deported and when being deported, custody of the individuals could be handed over only to immigration officials. He explained that Tanzanian authorities would not hand Bester and Magudumana over to police, only to immigration officials from Home Affairs. When the police left for Tanzania, someone from Home Affairs, but not immigration, accompanied them. The DHA did not have a plane like the police or army, and therefore the only option was to fly commercially.

Minister Motsoaledi explained that flying commercially required a team of 14 people. He described the journey as flying to Dar es Salaam, hiring two minibuses to drive approximately 600 km to Arusha, and then driving approximately 60 km to Mount Kilimanjaro. The logistics of this journey would not be able to work, so the DHA decided to charter a flight. Chartering a flight for deportation from faraway countries was commonplace, and there was a database in National Treasury of companies that could be used to charter aircraft. The requirements for the aircraft were that it needed to be able to fit 14 people, and the company needed to be able to acquire landing rights and other necessary documentation by itself within 24 hours because of the urgency of the case. Many companies had responded, and the cheapest option of R1.4 million had been chosen. He emphasised that there had been no request for a luxury flight.

Minister Motsoaledi said that the Head of Law Enforcement under Immigration had led the team to fetch Bester and Magudumana in Tanzania. Bester and Magudumana had been handed over to the Head of Law Enforcement at the South African Embassy. The process of handing over a criminal who had fled from another country to the police was called rendition. Tanzania had been persistent in wanting to hand over Bester and Magudumana to immigration officials because they did not want to be blamed or accused of rendition by handing them over to the police or army, or the use of any police or army transportation. This was why Tanzania had insisted that Home Affairs find a mode of transportation to collect Bester and Magudumana. The Minister highlighted a case where the head of a law enforcement agency had been accused of rendition and removed from his work because he had allegedly handed Zimbabweans directly to the Zimbabwean police, and not immigration officials.

The deportation documents

The Minister addressed an issue that had come up in the media, that the DHA or police had made mistakes when retrieving Bester and Magudumana. This was because, in court, Bester had asked to see the documents used to deport him from Tanzania. He explained this situation, using the example of being robbed in a European country and losing all one's ID and travel documents. In this circumstance, one would go to the South African Embassy and be issued an Emergency Travel Certificate – a handwritten document where the individual would provide the necessary information. This document could be used to leave the country and return to South Africa, but when landing in South Africa, the document would become null and void and the information provided would be verified with South African databases. He said that because Bester did not have a passport, he was brought back to South Africa via an Emergency Travel Certificate issued by the South African Embassy in Dar es Salaam. The Minister emphasised that the information on the Emergency Travel Certificate was provided by Bester, including an ID number. The Home Affairs official knew it was a fake ID number, because Bester had never been registered. Upon landing at Lanseria Airport, the ID number was searched for in the databases. It was found that the ID number did not exist. The case was recorded as an incident in the Home Affairs Movement Control System. He said Bester should also be charged with defeating the ends of justice because he deliberately provided a fake ID number and claimed in court that he was deported with the wrong ID number.

Bester's fingerprints

Minister Motsoaledi addressed the issue of fingerprints. Because Home Affairs had no record of Bester, they also did not have his fingerprints. Home Affairs had the largest database of fingerprints in the country and the only fingerprints they did not have were of those individuals who had only a birth certificate because they were too young to have IDs. He said the DHA was in the process of creating a Bill requiring people to get IDs at the age of 10.

The Minister said that when Bester had been arrested, correctional services and the police took his fingerprints. Before retrieving Bester in Tanzania, Home Affairs did not have his fingerprints. In Tanzania, his fingerprints were taken. The Minister confirmed that the fingerprints taken in Tanzania matched the fingerprints taken by correctional services and the police, which confirmed that the person in custody was the same person that had previously been identified and arrested as Thabo Bester.

The Minister concluded the update on the Bester case and invited questions and commentary from the Committee members.

Discussion

The Chairperson thanked the Minister for the detailed update he had provided, and asked him to provide a detailed written report on what had been presented so that it may be on record, and that the Committee could conduct oversight.

Mr Roos noted that what was presumed to be Bester’s body had been found burnt in a cell, but it was now clear that the body belonged to someone else. Thousands of South African children could not be issued birth certificates without DNA testing to prove parentage. He said that the Thabo Bester from Baragwanath was the same person as the Thabo Bester from Laerskool Danie Theron. He asked if there was a possibility that these were two different people. He said that DNA testing was insisted on for many poor South Africans. He asked if DNA testing was being pursued between Thabo Bester and Meisie Maria Mabaso, to verify that Bester was the same individual born in Baragwanath and who had attended Laerskool Danie Theron. He asked if special treatment was occurring because of all the circumstantial evidence, and said that it seemed as if the authorities were simply taking Bester and Mabaso’s word as the truth. He insisted that a DNA test had to be done.

He asked what the gap was between a prisoner being treated as an undocumented migrant or being treated as a South African citizen that did not have an ID. It was unclear why Bester was not registered at the age of 16 with his siblings, when he was first arrested and convicted at 17. It was confusing that Bester was not on the NPR, but was also not treated like an undocumented migrant. He asked how many other individuals were experiencing this type of situation and what could be done to deal with this type of issue. How was Bester imprisoned without an ID, and why had no one confirmed his identity?

Ms T Legwase (ANC) asked if it was possible to summon Bester’s mother, Ms Mabaso, for a DNA test. She commended the DHA for their efforts on the case. She was disconnected from the meeting platform due to network issues.

The Chairperson confirmed that she could finish her statement when she returned to the meeting platform.

Mr Pillay expressed his appreciation for the way in which the DHA and the Minister had dealt with the situation. He asked about the body that had been burnt, and acknowledged that the death certificate that had been issued was now null and void. He said that the person who had died had required a death certificate, and that it was important that the matter of the individual’s identity be resolved. He had heard that Dr Magudumana had taken three bodies, and asked if it was possible that the burnt body was one of these individuals and if testing could be done to clarify the identity of the deceased.

Mr Pillay said that Bester’s case had resulted from what should have been a late registration of birth (LRB) and a lack of registration. Bester not appearing on the NPR was concerning -- something had to be done to get an official identification document for him. This would be important for the case and the trial that would take place. He agreed that something needed to be done to relook at ensuring birth registrations.

Ms L van der Merwe (IFP) thanked the Minister for the comprehensive feedback, and agreed with the call for DNA testing to be done.

She expressed shock at the spending of R1.4 million to retrieve two fugitives. The Portfolio Committee knew the DHA's budget limitations and constraints, and was aware of what needed to be done with the budget. She was concerned that this amount of money had been spent, considering that it was not the Department’s fault that Bester had escaped. She asked why 14 people had been needed to retrieve Bester and Magudumana, and asked the Minister to explain the roles and responsibilities of the 14 individuals. She understood the logistical issues of the journey that the Minister had outlined, but if she had to book a ticket on Kenyan Airways to Dar es Salaam, it would cost R6 500, and it would surely be possible to take a bus or flight to Arusha that would surely cost far less than what had been spent on chartering the jet. She was sure that they had made use of the lowest quote, and asked if there had been any effort to receive some of the money from the Department of Correctional Services, the Department of Justice or G4S.

Ms van der Merwe said that she had seen an interview where the Minister had mentioned that the passports were not stamped, and he had made a remark that high-ranking officials were potentially involved in the passports not being stamped. It raised the question about the South African borders being porous and the implications of that for the safety and security of the nation. She asked if the Department intended to look into what had transpired with officials at the borders, considering that the Border Management Authority (BMA) was in operation.

She said that if Bester could exist for so many years in South Africa – going to schools and being imprisoned – without an ID number, there was clearly a need for the DHA to focus on documenting the millions of undocumented persons in the country, including foreign nationals, nationals and people who were incarcerated. She asked if the DHA had any plan for such a mechanism.

Ms van der Merwe asked about the issue of the Gupta brothers, and Dubai not granting South Africa’s extradition request. She said the Gupta brothers still possessed their South African passports because they were still South African citizens. She asked if anything prevented the DHA from cancelling the Gupta brothers’ passports and flagging them so that the passports could not be used to travel.

She said she shared the Minister’s concerns that the legal team representing the Minister in the ZEP issue had let the DHA and the Minister down. She asked if it had been state legal advisors, or if the Minister had assembled the team.

Ms Legwase apologised for the network disruption. She said that the speakers had covered her points.

Mr Y Tetyana (EFF) said the country had been embarrassed by the Thabo Bester situation. The system controlled by Home Affairs had humiliated the country. He was shocked to hear people commending the DHA and Minister for their actions. Bester had abused the system and there had been no response to a situation that had become so bad. He asked how many other people were abusing the system in this way while committing criminal activities. The Minister was only doing his job, and should not be thanked for performing basic requirements. He said that the Minister’s inability to manage the issues around this case had made the situation worse. He was concerned that many other people were doing the same thing, but were not as high profile as the Bester case. Regardless of the criminal issues, the issue that he had with the DHA was that Bester had been running around the country and had not once been documented.

He highlighted that many Home Affairs offices had long queues that the Department was unable to deal with, and that the main issue was back registration. He said the process was tedious and frustrating. Many of the long queues were people waiting to register, and the Minister would say that he had inherited the issue. He said that the Thabo Bester situation had exposed the cracks in the system and had made the country look like fools. He had not heard the complete update from the Minister, but would wait for the official report to engage further on the matter.

Ms M Modise (ANC) thanked the DHA for their response on the Thabo Bester case and the efforts made to bring Bester and Magudumana back to the country. The clarification around Tanzania not releasing Bester and Magudumana to anyone other than immigration officials was useful, because it allowed the public to see how the countries interacted with each other.

She said people should not forget that it had been made very difficult for many black South Africans to access services like Home Affairs in the apartheid era. Many adults had no birth certificates or were not registered. She suggested that it was time to create a system that ensured that a record of all children born within the country’s borders was kept to ensure that the challenges currently being faced were minimised.

She expressed concern about issuing a death certificate without an ID. She was concerned that a death certificate could be issued without an ID, and that the document was handwritten. She asked if the document was considered to be a legal document that was registered on the system or if it was just a document issued to the family so that the body could be claimed for burial purposes.

She agreed that DNA testing had to be done between Thabo Bester and Meisie Mabaso to confirm his identity. She asked what the procedure would be once the parentage had been confirmed between Bester and Mabaso, of registering Bester and providing him with an ID so that he could be added to the NPR.

Ms Modise asked about the passports found in Magudumana’s possession. She noted that the three passports were legitimate, and that two had belonged to another doctor who claimed that one had been lost and that she had given the other passport to Bester and Magudumana. She was concerned about why it had been so easy for Dr Ntshani to be issued three passports. She said that the 2023 passport was in the system but had not been collected, and it was concerning that it had not been withheld given the ties Dr Ntshani had to Bester and Magudumana. She suggested that the DHA tighten its application procedures for new passports in the case of loss or theft.

The Chairperson thanked the Members for the questions and concerns they had raised. He had two concerns. He asked if the DHA intended to engage with correctional services and address the issue of many inmates not having legitimate, or any of the necessary documentation. The Minister had commissioned a team led by former Director-General Cassius Lubisi to conduct an assessment regarding corrupt practices. The report indicated the presence of an organised syndicate outside and within the system. He asked what was being done about this, because it highlighted some critical issues within the system. He also asked about the continuous issuing of passports without a verified process, and expressed concern over how the doctor had conducted herself with the DHA.

Minister's response

Minister Motsoaledi responded to the concerns and the suggestion of DNA testing.

He corrected Mr Roos’s statement that DNA testing was required to prove parentage and to register births. He said that DNA testing was not a common practice within the Department. Births had to be registered within 30 days of the birth. DNA was usually used to determine fathers. He said that Home Affairs offices were being opened in hospitals so that the births could be registered soon after they occurred. This was stopped in 2020 due to COVID-19 but has been resumed. He described it as an effort to reduce late registration of births (LRBs), which referred to registration after the first 30 days of the birth. He said that after 12 months, the process was more tedious. The individuals would be required to go to hospitals or other organisations that would be able to confirm their identity in some way. A tribunal would occur, and thereafter an ID could be issued.

He said that DNA testing was considered only if significant information had not been captured. Insisting on doing DNA tests on everyone would be difficult because approximately 1.2 million babies are born each year, and approximately 20% are LRB, so performing DNA testing would be tedious. He said Home Affairs was not pursuing DNA testing, because the police were already doing this. Bester’s DNA had been taken during his first rape charge, but while it was being processed, Bester had admitted to the rape and the DNA testing had not been completed.

Minister Motsoaledi said that the investigation into the body found in the cell included a DNA test. DNA testing was also done on Meisie Mabaso, and the DNA of Bester’s presumed mother and the body did not match. This further confirmed that the body was not Bester's. He said that the pathologist did not have the DNA results when he completed the DHA-1663 due to the urgency of the matter. The police were waiting for Bester’s DNA results to confirm whether Ms Mabaso was his mother.

The Minister said he was not aware that undocumented prisoners were such a big issue because he had never worked in correctional services, but through the Bester case, he had discovered how big the issue of undocumented prisoners was. He said that a lack of identification did not stop judges from sentencing undocumented individuals, but this was not an exclusively South African issue and was happening all over the world. He added that correctional services had begun building identification for the individuals through fingerprinting, photos and asking for information.

The Minister responded to the concern that the person whose body had been burnt needed a death certificate. He said a death certificate would be issued once the body was identified. Correctional services were doing an investigation. A mechanism being generated to register all illegal inmates was being discussed with the Department of Correctional Services. He said they had to be careful of who was being registered, because it should not be used as a mechanism to gain citizenship.

Minister Motsoaledi responded on the cost of transporting Bester and Magudumana.

He said that it was possible to do this journey at a lower cost in an ordinary situation, but this situation was not ordinary. It was unlikely for a commercial flight to accept two fugitives and armed guards to ensure that they remained in custody, as the other passengers would have been uncomfortable. He said that commercial flights were not used for deportation cases. The DHA could not risk anything going wrong for the sake of saving money, and said that then the Department would have been labelled as careless. He added that the DHA had paid only one third of the total cost because the cost was shared with all the other concerned Departments. The decision had been the best one under the circumstances. The media reports of Tanzania requesting a luxury aircraft were not true.

Minister Motsoaledi addressed the issue of the involvement of high-ranking officials.

He said there were only two possibilities as to how Bester and Magudumana had left the country. South Africa had not been the only country violated when they escaped, because they had crossed the borders of many countries. He believed that jumping the fence was the only way to do this. He commented that when Bester and Magudumana were arrested in Tanzania, they had intended to jump the fence again. The second possibility was that a high-ranking official in immigration or the police may have facilitated their crossing-over at legitimate points of entry. This could consist of ensuring that their passports were not checked so that they could cross the border.

He explained that the Movement Control System tracked movement automatically when passports were scanned. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) required that all passports be machine-readable, meaning that any machine worldwide should be able to read them. As soon as a passport was scanned or read by the machine, the information was uploaded to the Movement Control System. He highlighted a previous case in Lebombo in 2021, where a uniformed police officer and six Home Affairs officials had been arrested. He had reported the incident to the Committee previously. They had been stamping passports to make it seem as if Mozambicans were crossing the border into Mozambique, but when the suspects were arrested, it was discovered that none of the passports they had stamped was on the Movement Control System. He said that two weeks previously, a police officer and an immigration officer had been caught working with a man from Ethiopia who was committing a similar crime. He said that the DHA was vigilant over cases like this.

The Minister responded to the issue of the Gupta brothers.

He said that the Gupta brothers had received their citizenship illegally. The matter had been taken to Parliament, but no ruling had been made to revoke their citizenship. He was not sure if Parliament could legally do that. Parliament had instructed that the people who provided these illegal documents should be punished. He said that Atul Gupta’s passport was full, and he had applied for a new passport, and the DHA had said that they could not issue him a passport while he was a fugitive. He noted that the DHA had won that particular case. He said they were to be extradited because they were South Africans and had committed crimes in South Africa. Because the United Arab Emirates refused extradition, the next step was to liaise with the Department of Justice and other relevant departments, including the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), to find out if the DHA could take back the documents that had been issued to the Gupta brothers. He said that the documents could not be taken back without taking back their permanent residency and citizenship – that would be arbitrary. The DHA was investigating the way forward because it was a complex issue. He asked if would be wise or strategic to take away their citizenship and documentation, and break their links to South Africa. He noted that the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) in South African law required administrative action to be ‘adui alteram partem’ -- listen to the other side. He explained that this was what had happened with Shepherd Bushiri. When Bushiri had applied for bail, the DHA had gone to court to explain that he had escaped the country with fraudulent documents, but the magistrate had given him bail. The DHA had written Bushiri a letter asking why the Department should not retrieve the fraudulent documents, but in court, it was ruled that the documents could not be taken away while he was still scheduled to appear in court.

The Minister responded to Mr Tetyana’s concerns, stating that he had not been looking for praise from the Committee. He was only accounting to the Committee and sharing the facts of the case thus far. In response to the concern that he would blame the issues on inherited problems, the Minister said that the issue of people registering was called Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) internationally. It was a big issue on the African continent, where records of births, marriages and deaths were frequently not formally recorded. Many international organisations referred to this as a “scandal of invisibility.” On the continent, South Africa was second in dealing with this issue, as it stood at 89% of civil registrations, which was second only to Egypt.

He noted that other social issues posed challenges to birth registrations. Home Affairs offices in hospitals were often placed outside or close to labour wards so that they could be easily accessible, and nurses helped to facilitate engagement between the mothers and Home Affairs officials. Despite these efforts, many people did not make use of the available services due to a variety of reasons, including cultural or religious reasons. He acknowledged that the mothers could not be forced to register the births. He said that 11% of South Africans were unregistered. Many other African countries were far behind. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was at 0% registrations and had asked for the DHA's assistance in building their systems and CRVS. The Minister said he had been willing to assist, but had not since heard from the DRC ambassador. The CRVS was launched in 2010 in Durban by several international organisations, including the African Union.

The Minister emphasised that the registration issues brought up by the Thabo Bester case should not be viewed solely as a South African issue, reiterating that significant progress had been made. He highlighted that in many cases, only the mother’s details were captured, and this was considered an abridged birth certificate because it was incomplete. The DHA did not want abridged birth certificates -- unabridged certificates were preferred because they were more comprehensive. He commented that the Department was forced to give out abridged birth certificates because many mothers did not want to disclose who the fathers of the children were.

Minister Motsoaledi responded to the question about the process of issuing an ID. He reiterated that individuals who required an LRB would need to collect the necessary documentation. A tribunal would be held, and only in extreme cases would DNA testing be done. Once the tribunal had reviewed the documents and evidence and approved it, an ID would be issued. The DHA had proved that the biggest source of identifying a human being was at birth, which was why the DHA was happy to have found Thabo Bester’s birth records at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

Responding to the question about issuing multiple passports, he said that there was no limitation to the number of passports that a person could apply for and have. Many business people had multiple passports due to the type of life they were leading. When he was a Member of the Executive Council (MEC) in Limpopo, he himself had three passports. He said checking who passports were being issued to and under what conditions were important. Putting a restriction on the number of passports a person could hold would disrupt the lives of many people. The DHA could not stop people from applying unless changes were made to the legislation.

The Minister said that Magudumana did not carry any irregular passports -- there was nothing wrong with any of the passports she had. She had obtained them legally. He was concerned with why she had been carrying Dr Ntshani’s passports. The DHA intended to get more information from Dr Ntshani on why she had given the passports to Magudumana and other matters surrounding her connection to the case.

The Minister said that the DHA was interacting and engaging with the Department of Correctional Services to address identification issues. The Lubisi team had been concerned with syndicates coming to South Africa to register fraudulently. The recommendation had been to get a multi-disciplinary team to look into the issue. Forming the team had been difficult, but they had made progress. He hoped that he would be able to present the findings soon. The idea that 40% of South African passports were fraudulent was a mistake -- the question had been ‘how many documents could potentially be fraudulent,’ and Lubisi had estimated 40 000. He emphasised that this figure was a guess, and only the multi-disciplinary team would be able to provide the correct answer.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister for the detailed responses he had provided. Part of the oversight work of the Committee was to ensure that the Minister and his team were accounting to the Committee, and that the Minister would implement the decisions taken by the Committee. There had been decisions taken by the Committee that the DHA and other stakeholders had implemented. He said it was important to give the Minister and DHA credit where it was necessary, but also to raise concerns and issues that had emerged. Serving the people of the country had been demonstrated by the Minister, as he had dutifully kept the public aware of developments with the Thabo Bester case. He thanked the Minister for dealing with the issues in such an efficient manner, and said that it made the work of the Committee easier when the Minister was able to share such comprehensive feedback. He expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Committee for the work that had been done by all involved parties to get Thabo Bester and Nandipha Magudumana back to the country.

Follow-up questions

Mr Roos asked a follow-up question about the Gupta issue. He noted that in the Supreme Court, there had been a loss of citizenship case involving section 6(1) of the South African Citizenship Act. Section 6(1) stated that a South African ceased to be a South African citizen if they, while not being a minor, by some voluntary or formal act other than marriage, acquired the citizenship or nationality of a country other than the Republic. Further, it said that prior to this, individuals may apply to the Minister for permission to retain their South African citizenship. He asserted that Section 6(1) meant that when the Guptas applied for their Vanuatu citizenship, they should then automatically have lost their South African citizenship. He asked for clarity on whether the Guptas had applied to the Minister to retain their South African citizenship before they received their Vanuatu citizenship. If that was not the case, they should have lost their South African citizenship.

Ms Modise stepped in temporarily as acting Chairperson, as the Chairperson had connectivity issues. She indicated that Ms Van der Merwe could proceed.

Ms van der Merwe emphasised the call for clarity on the Gupta situation. The Minister had said that the Guptas had fraudulently obtained their South African citizenship and had also applied for citizenship in a new country. These circumstances should mean that the Gupta brothers ceased to be South African citizens and that their documents could be revoked.

She reiterated her previous question regarding the private jet chartered for the flight to Tanzania. She asked for clarity on the 14 officials needed for the journey. Had it been 14 Home Affairs officials, or had it been a combination of officials from Home Affairs, the Department of Correctional Services, and the police?

Ms Modise asked about the written death certificate that had been issued. She said the doctor who had conducted the post-mortem and completed the DHA-1663 had completed the form without an ID number. She asked if the handwritten death certificate was recognised as a legal document.

Minister's response

The Minister said that he had heard about the citizenship of the Guptas in Vanuatu, but had not formally received any evidence of this. It was true that the Guptas had to write a request to retain their citizenship. He said that the Democratic Alliance (DA) had gone to court about the issue of having to get permission from the Minister. The DA did not win the case, but appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeals and that case still had to be heard. He had heard about the Guptas getting citizenship in Vanuatu through the media. He intended to meet with the Department of Justice and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) to discuss the potential next steps and the implications of acquiring citizenship without asking for permission from the Minister. He was still being guided through the process, since the DA had appealed the case.

The Minister apologised for stating that the Guptas had got their documents fraudulently, and said that this had been a mistake. He clarified that when this matter came before Parliament, Parliament had not found fraud. It had found that the Guptas had got their naturalisation prematurely or before the prescribed period. Home Affairs had argued that they were expediting it because the Guptas were investors. The Committee and many others had not accepted this. He clarified that it had not been a case of fraud, but rather that the Gupta brothers used political power to expedite their naturalisation. Because of this, a policy was established that said that whenever the Minister expedited anybody’s naturalisation, it had to be reported and explained to Parliament. This meant that Parliament had not abolished expediting naturalisation, but good reasons were needed for it to occur. He emphasised his apology for misleading the Committee and the public regarding the statement that it had been fraud.

The Minister responded to the question about the 14 officials. He clarified that it had not only been Home Affairs officials. The 14 people had initially included a Mozambican person, but he was not brought to South Africa. It also included the Home Affairs official that had initially gone to Tanzania. He said there had been 12 people on the flight, and it had been a combination of officials from Home Affairs, the Department of Correctional Services, security services, the police, and the two pilots.

The Chairperson apologised for being disconnected from the meeting platform. He said that the item had been exhausted, but that the Committee would be waiting to receive the formal report so that any other follow-up questions and issues could be resolved. He indicated that this item could be concluded if there were no other issues. He thanked the Minister for his responses.

The Minister said he had not responded to the question regarding the death certificate. He confirmed that the handwritten death certificate was a legal document. He said handwritten death certificates were issued under the following conditions: if a foreign national had died in the country, and if the cause of death for South African citizens was unknown. Foreign nationals were not on the NPR, and the database that they were on did not register births.

He said that a Bill had been issued that would be presented to the Committee soon stating that the NPR, the NIIS and VAS should all be abolished to create one system -- the National Information System (NIS) -- in which everyone within the borders was recorded. He said that the document was handwritten because the deaths, births and marriages of foreign nationals were not currently recorded. The death certificate came in three forms: natural death, unnatural death and still investigating. If the cause of death was still being investigated, a handwritten death certificate was written and issued until the investigation was complete and a normal death certificate could be issued. If Home Affairs received a DHA-1663 form with no ID number, a handwritten document would be issued – as was the case with the body found in the prison cell. He emphasised that the handwritten document was legal, but was filed separately from documents on the NPR.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister for his detailed response, and excused him and Department from the meeting platform. He reminded the Minister to share the report on the Bester update once it had been compiled, a presentation on the ZEP issue once a judgment was made, and the presentation on the electoral laws amendment policy.

Committee matters

Draft 2023-24 budget, annual plan and oversight report.

Mr Salmon said that the report had been sent to Committee Members. He explained that it was a summary of the proceedings from the Committee’s budget engagement, its strategic plan engagement and oversight at the Home Affairs head office. The report detailed a variety of aspects, but he would not go into full detail during the briefing, as it was simply a summary of the previously mentioned engagements.

He said the recommendations of the report could be adopted and amended if necessary. He highlighted a number of recommendations. These included:

- that the DHA provide an update on all outstanding recommendations in the interim legacy report of the Committee by the third quarter of 2023;

- the DHA budget should continue to increase in capacity beyond the 55% currently allowed;

- decentralisation and the downward delegation of applications needed to be put in place to address the backlog;

- the need to address the issue of long queues at offices and the deployment of mobile offices in rural areas; and

- that a focus had to be placed on IDs ahead of the 2024 elections.

Mr Salmon also highlighted a number of recommendations for the Border Management Authority (BMA), the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Government Printing Works (GPW).

Discussion

Mr Roos expressed frustration at receiving the document only the previous evening, as it hindered the opportunity to review it thoroughly. He suggested a firmer approach to the issue of Visa adjudications. He said that despite some visa categories not appearing in the APP, the Committee should still receive a report on them. He emphasised that it was important to understand what was occurring with all types of visa documents so that the Committee could act responsibly.

He highlighted an issue that had come up during the Committee's site visits about documents received from Visa Facilitation Services, and the need for the public private partnership (PPP) to be expedited so that they would be responsible for how the information was collected. This would avoid the potential of people going through the whole process to be told at a late stage that certain documents were missing.

Mr Roos said that during the strategic session, Treasury had made it clear that funding for the Border Management Authority was going to be very difficult. There had been little reassurance regarding the funding, so it was necessary to establish how much money was available and what the BMA would be able to do. The BMA was now an unfunded mandate and because of this, certain aspects were being outsourced or handed over to other departments. He recommended that the BMA needed to be fully funded to achieve its mandate.

Mr Pillay suggested that the report be adopted at the next Committee meeting so that Members would have sufficient time to review the document. He expressed concern that he and other Members had not had time to properly review the document and that they would not be able to respond effectively. He had picked up some issues, but was unable to respond effectively during the meeting. He thanked Mr Roos for his input.

Ms van der Merwe agreed with Mr Pillay’s suggestion, because she had been unable to review the document at the time of the meeting.

Ms Modise expressed her agreement to adopt the report in the next meeting.

The Chairperson commented that the document would be adopted at the next meeting due to the limited time that Members had to review it. If they had any concerns, they could submit them to Mr Salmon, who could address them at the next meeting. He asked if Mr Salmon was comfortable proceeding in this manner.

Mr Salmon said that there would be sufficient time to postpone the adoption of the report to the next meeting, before the budget debates.

Closing remarks

The Chairperson said that Mr Salmon should take note of the concerns of Members at receiving documents at a late stage, which meant that they had less time to review and effectively respond to them. He suggested that the timeframe be relooked at.

Mr Salmon said that the following week included a public holiday, and that no meeting was scheduled. The intention had been to have an in-person meeting the week after the public holiday, but this would have to be confirmed with the Committee. He noted that an emergency meeting might be necessary due to the urgency of the Electoral Bill within the next week.

The Chairperson acknowledged this, and said he would correspond with the DHA to schedule a special meeting to consider the Electoral Bill and other urgent issues.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

 

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