In some instances, they find themselves waiting outside Home Affairs offices as early as 03:00.
Naganelang batho ba bangwe! Ke mariga a go siame gore motho ka ura ya boraro mo mosong a bo a ya go emela lekwaloitshupo kwa kantorong. Tona a lefapha le ke kopa lefapha le simolole go diar. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Be considerate to other people! It is now the winter season and it is absurd for a person to be in a queue to receive his identity document at 03:00. Minister, please ensure that your department delivers adequate service.]
These conditions are precisely the production sites of xenophobia. It is even more concerning that Africans who want to study in South Africa still have to jump through hoops to get student visas. Shouldn't the doors of learning be opened to all, mostly, South Africans?
In the refugee camp in KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC officials are busy looting food parcels meant for immigrants, who are staying in shocking conditions. Now, we have learnt that even South Africans are in these refugee camps. Nine-year-old, South African-born Dolly has found herself in these refugee camps precisely because of the Department of Home Affairs' inability to ensure that South Africans and Africans can move freely across these colonial, imposed borders. For white South Africans, however, it is easy. In the Year of the Freedom Charter, should this really be happening?
While the much-publicised ID smart cards are supposed to lessen the burden, the poor will be the last to receive them, as usual. The current capacity to produce ID smart cards leaves much to be desired. Even if the department reaches its target to produce 5 million ID smart cards a year, it would take at least 10 years to produce for the current population.
The government must build internal capacity and stop the tender system. Tenders with companies, like VFS Global, which continue to milk the state purse, is a model that is not sustainable. We know that the Department of Home Affairs will be here tomorrow and next year. Why is it not building its internal administrative capacity?
Corruption and maladministration must be dealt with decisively, in time, and the Minister must ensure that it ends. It is the poor who are subjected to this ...
... ka gore rona re tswa kwa khumanegong tota, kwa ga Motlharo. [... because in Ga-Motlharo, we are the poorest of the poor.]
It is the poor who are subjected to this, not the rich and the elite.
Tona, o ka se tlhaloganye se ke buang ka soneson ka fa o se na maitemogelo a sona. [Minister, you will not comprehend what I am talking about as you have no experience thereof.]
Home Affairs must be accessible for everyone. Everyone! As the EFF, we definitely do not support the Home Affairs Budget Vote.
Ke bua ke re: Ga re fetoge; ga re tshameke ebile ga re tshege. [There is no turning back.] We are the government-in-waiting. Thank you. [Applause.]