Andrew Stegmann

SA Home Affairs: Budget Cuts Will Not Results in Office Closures

The South African Department of Home Affairs says that compulsory budget cuts will not mean it has to close any of its offices, but will have a “negative impact on the filling of some posts”.

Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, confirmed his department was facing compulsory budget cuts in reply to a Parliamentary question from the DA’s Joseph McGluwa.

“Budget cuts will have a negative impact on the filling of some posts, but we are not envisioning closure of any Home Affairs office,” he said.

Details of the cuts are contained in a document published by National Treasury in June. The paper provides national departments and public entities with guidelines of how to prepare their budget submissions.

It refers to a compulsory budget baseline reduction scenario of:

  • 5 percent in 2020/21;
  • 6 percent in 2021/22; and
  • 7 percent in 2022/23.

Departments must show how they can make cuts with the least impact for service delivery, and must suggest “non-priority programs and projects to be scaled down or closed.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

Overview of Complying With Nigeria’s Recent Data Protection Regulation

Nigeria’s Data Protection Regulation came into effect in January 2019, and companies operating in the country have an obligation to ensure they are compliant.

Nigerian law firm Aelex has provided an overview of gaining compliance.

Step One
Determine the processing activities of the organisation.

The NDPR has defined processing as any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

Identify the type of personal data that are collected and the nature of processing. The identification would assist in determining the most effective means to comply with the NDPR.

Step Two
Ascertain whether the organisation is a data controller or a data administrator/processor.

A data controller is one who determines the purpose and manner in which personal data is to be processed. On the other hand, a data administrator simply processes data.

Identify the circumstances where your organisation is a data controller or administrator/processor, as most obligations are imposed on the data controller. The data controller has the responsibility to ensure that the consent of the data subject is obtained without fraud, coercion or undue influence, and is liable for any breach of the NDPR. As such, the data controller will be liable for a violation done by a data administrator/processor. Also, depending on the circumstance, the data controller or the processor may be responsible for the actions and inaction of any third party.

Step Three
Appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO)

As a data controller, an organisation must appoint a DPO. The DPO may be an individual or any entity. The duty of the DPO is to ensure that the organisation complies with the provision of the NDPR.

Step Four
Assess your organisation’s processing activities

Conduct an assessment of the organisation’s processing activities to determine the necessary steps to ensure alignment with the NDPR. Questions such as the following, should be addressed:

  1. How is data collected?
  2. Which department receives such data?
  3. Why does the organisation process such data?
  4. What will be the legal basis for processing such data?
  5. What are the security measures taken by the organisation to prevent data breach?

Step Five
Begin Implementation of the NDPR

To implement the NDPR, an organisation should adopt the following within the stated timelines:

  • Make available the data protection policies (such as the privacy policy) for the general public. This should have been carried out since 25th April, 2019.
  • Conduct an audit of the organisation’s privacy and data protection practices on or before the 25th of July, 2019.
  • Where an organisation is a data controller and it processes personal data of more than 1000 people in 6 months, it should submit a summary audit to NITDA. No compliance timeline was indicated for this obligation in the NDPR.
  • Where an organisation is a data controller and it processes personal data of more than 2000 people in a year, it must submit an audit to NITDA on the 15th of March 2020 and the 15th March of every subsequent year.

In closing, it should be noted that the mass media and civil society have been given the right to uphold accountability and foster the objectives of the NDPR.

To read more about the Regulation, click here.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann

South African President’s 5-Point Plan to Tackle Gender-Based Violence

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday announced a five-point emergency plan to put a halt to gender-based violence during an extraordinary joint sitting of Parliament.

The five points are prevention, strengthening the criminal justice system, enhancing the legal and policy framework, ensuring adequate care, support and healing for victims of violence and strengthening the economic power of women.

The plan will be implemented over the next six months.

1. Prevention

“In implementing our prevention measures, we must recognise that violence against women is not a problem of women. It is a problem of men,” Ramaphosa said.

This part of the plan entails the following measures:

  • A mass media campaign that will target communities, public spaces, workplaces, campuses, schools and recreational spaces like taverns. The focus will be on men’s groups and formations, youth at risk and offenders inside prisons.
  • Women’s rights and gender power relations will be part of Life Orientation in the school curriculum.
  • Gender-sensitivity training for law enforcement officials, prosecutors, magistrates and policymakers. Those who are found in breach of their responsibilities in this regard will be held to account.
  • Train and deploy prevention activists to all of 278 municipalities. They will engage in household visits and community interventions focused on changing harmful social norms.

2. Strengthen the criminal justice system

“This is to ensure that justice is served, perpetrators are held to account, survivors do not suffer secondary victimisation, and the law acts as a deterrent,” Ramaphosa said.

It includes the following measures:

  • Directing resources to improve the functioning of sexual offences courts, Thuthuzela care centres, and the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Investigation Units of the SAPS;
  • Funding has already been approved for the establishment of an additional eleven sexual offences courts over the next financial year; and
  • The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development will clear the backlog of criminal cases for rape and other forms of gender-based violence through the establishment of special courts, hiring additional court staff and clearing the backlog at forensic labs.

3. Enhance the legal and policy framework

“Since the advent of democracy, we have enacted several laws and undertaken a number of programmes to tackle gender inequality in our society, to promote human rights and to enable effective action against gender-based violence,” Ramaphosa said.

“In many respects, however, these measures have fallen short of what is needed to confront the severity of the challenges we face.”

The measures to improve the legal and policy framework are:

  • Proposing a range of legal and regulatory reforms to Parliament to strengthen the response of the State to gender-based violence and to ensure that all crimes against women and children attract harsher minimum sentences.
  • Engaging with the judiciary on the role that it can play in supporting the national effort to end gender-based violence to ensure abusers, rapists and murderers know that they will be caught and punished. The State should oppose bail for suspects charged with the rape and murder of women and children and those who are found guilty of such crimes should not be eligible for parole.
  • Strengthen programmes to rehabilitate offenders and youth at risk. Finalise legislation like the Victim Support Services Bill, which will strengthen support for GBV programmes and services.
  • Ramaphosa called on all parliamentary committees to prioritise these areas of legislative reform and ensure that we have effective legislation in place without delay.

4. Ensure adequate care, support and healing for victims of violence

Measures in this part of the plan are:

  • Standardising the framework for funding civil society organisations working with survivors of gender-based violence;
  • Providing post-rape training for healthcare providers and lay counsellors who provide care and support to victims and survivors;
  • Working with the private sector, concerned individuals and other institutions to substantially increase the number of Thuthuzela care centres across the country from the current 54 to over 100 by 2025;
  • Meet with representatives of the private sector to discuss the establishment of a Gender-based Violence and Femicide Fund to increase support to survivors, including persons with disability and the LGBTQI+ community;
  • As drug and alcohol abuse fuel gender-based violence, the Department of Social Development has been tasked with increasing the visibility of substance abuse awareness and education and prioritising funding for more treatment facilities; and
  • Resource the gender-based violence framework in universities and colleges, which will include the establishment of gender equity offices in these institutions. Ramaphosa will meet the universities’ vice-chancellors to come up with initiatives that are focused on what should be done at institutions of higher learning.

Improve the economic power of women

“Women are often hostages in abusive relationships because of poverty and unemployment. Young women, in particular, are vulnerable to exploitation from older men with financial resources. By tackling unequal economic power dynamics we can reduce the vulnerability of women to abuse,” Ramaphosa said.

5. This will include the following measures:

  • Prioritise women when it comes to access to employment, training opportunities and procurement of services, and call upon the private sector to do the same;
  • Reach the target to set aside 30% of the value of its procurement for women-owned businesses, and to progressively increase that to 40%;
  • Prioritise support and training for women engaging in small business and informal sector activity, and call on established business to be part of this effort;
  • All government departments will be expected to adhere to gender-responsive planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation; and
  • Improve collection and analysis of data to monitor our GBV programmes.

Comments from other political parties

The EFF‘s Veronica Mente noted that there was no quick fix to the problem. “Our only help is successful policing, prosecuting, tough sentencing and working prisons. We will stay with this problem forever, as long as we do not fix these systems,” she said.

IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe commended Ramaphosa’s initiative and pledged her support. But she noted that following previous high-profile murders of women such as Anene Booysen, Karabo Mokoena and toddler Courtney Pieters, the government had pledged action – but to no avail.

Van der Merwe said that in announcing the interventions outlined in his address, Ramaphosa had shown that he had the courage to act. However, what remained to be seen was whether the government had the courage to govern, the courage to do what was right and the courage to save the nation from becoming a failed state.

“To date, the disjunction between what our women endure and what our government does in response has been alarmingly inadequate,” she added.

ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe

called for harsher punishments for rape, saying that to help send a clear message that the justice system is serious about fighting gender-based violence, rapists should be denied bail and parole.

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa complimented Ramaphosa’s announcement, saying that the president spoke like a commander-in-chief.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane has called on political party leaders to cast aside their differences and recognise the severity of the gender-based violence crisis consuming South Africa.

“Let us make the dignity, respect and safety of women and girls in our society our number one priority,” he said. He said it was tragic was that few perpetrators were ever arrested and prosecuted, resulting in a conviction rate for rape of just 5%.

Maimane called on parents to set a better example to their sons. “We must raise them to respect girls and women as their equal. We must show our boys, through all our actions, what is right and what is wrong,” he said.

Children should be taught about consent at school, he said, adding that Kenya had achieved dramatic results with a “No Means No” programme in their schools. “We need to introduce similar consent classes in our own life orientation curriculum,” said Maimane, adding that culture, tradition or religion should not be allowed to offer a hiding place for those who commit such acts.

Maimane said the existing legislation was not up to the task as the act dealing with domestic abuse was 20 years old and out of touch. The DA leader proposed that parliament establishes an ad hoc committee to investigate the systemic causes of gender-based violence and to map out long-term solutions.

To watch the National Assembly session, click here.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2], [3], [4]. Image sources: shi zhao [1], [2].

Andrew Stegmann
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Wealthy South Africans Are Able to Gain EU Citizenship Through Malta

Emigration options for South Africans are fairly limited. Most countries require special skills applied towards applications for specific jobs, or for the applicants to dig deep into ancestral histories.

But when it comes to Malta, the applicants only need to provide cash, lots of it. Unlike ancestral visas, the process of obtaining Maltese residency or citizenship via investment is relatively quick, and awarded largely without prejudice after a due diligence process.

And this is the route many high-net-worth South Africans appear to be following.

The Maltese government offers both residency and citizenship programs, which require applicants to spend and invest millions. Each offer the right to live and work in Malta, easy access into the Schengen Zone as a traveler, and in the case of citizenship, it’s also possible to live and work anywhere in the European Union.

According to residence and citizenship company LIO Global, the application process is relatively straightforward – but it requires applicants to invest a significant amount of cash, or purchase or rent properties in order to obtain residency.

Citizenship requires both cash investments and a property purchase or rental, and a significantly higher non-refundable “donation” to the Maltese government.

The cheap route: R490,000, excluding investments starting at R4.1 million.

The cheapest way to get a Maltese passport is to purchase residency, though even this doesn’t come cheap.

In order to get a Maltese passport via the Malta Residency and Visa Program, South Africans need to pay a non-refundable deposit of approximately R90,000 before anything is confirmed.

If successful, the applicant must then pay an additional flat fee of approximately R400,000.

The direct investment route requires applicants to put at least R4.1 million into government bonds, and leave it untouched for a minimum of five years.

Another way to gain Maltese residency is to purchase or rent property, either in Malta or on the island of Gozo.

In order to qualify, purchased property must have a minimum value of around R5.2 million. The minimum property price in Gozo is slightly less – there, applicants will need to spend a minimum R4.4 million.

If renting, applicants must commit to an annual rental in Malta worth approximately R200,000. In Gozo, the annual rental amount must be approximately R165,000.

Residency status doesn’t require applicants to remain in Malta, and the entire process can be completed in just two physical trips, one to sign the application in the presence of a commissionaire of oaths, and another to submit the residency permit. After this, and the financial commitments, the applicant can enjoy all the benefits from abroad.

The process is also relatively quick – the Maltese government typically turns these applications around in under six months.

Malta is an archipelago in the central Mediterranean, between Sicily and the North African coast.

The expensive route: R10.6 million rand excluding investments starting at R2.5 million.

After the success of the residency program, the Maltese government added a way to purchase citizenship, under the Individual Investor Program.

This comes with the added benefit of European citizenship, which means successful applicants can live, work or travel to any countries in the European Union.

As both Malta and South Africa allow for dual citizenship, this program means South Africans can retain their South African citizenship, too.

Maltese citizenship comes at a significant price, though.

Applicants who pass the due diligence process must make a contribution totally R10.6 million to the country’s National Development Fund.

Spouses and children under 18 who wish to join must pay an additional R408,000 each. And unmarried, financially dependent children between the age of 18 and 26 are also welcome – at a cost of R816,000 each.

The program also requires a five year financial investment of approximately R2.5 million, which is returnable.

Applicants must satisfy some degree of legal residency, and purchase or rent property. If purchasing a property, the applicant must spend at least R5.7 million, and hold onto it for five years.

The applicant can also rent a property for a minimum of five years, instead of buying. This must have a minimum annual value of at least R260,000.

Neither of these properties can be rented out during the five year period.

The application process for citizenship takes approximately one year to finalize. Once approved, applicants must make at least two visits to Malta – including a stay of between two and three weeks during the first year.

 

For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.

Sources: [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].