Andrew Stegmann

Let’s All Do Our Part for Mandela Day 2018

Happy Mandela Day!

Nelson Mandela International Day (or Mandela Day) is an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each year on 18 July, Mandela’s birthday. The day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009, with the first UN Mandela Day held on 18 July 2010. However, other groups began celebrating Mandela Day on 18 July 2009.

On 27 April 2009, the 46664 concerts and the Nelson Mandela Foundation invited the global community to join them in support of an official Mandela Day. Mandela Day is not meant as a public holiday, but as a day to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former President, and his values, through volunteering and community service.

Mandela Day is a global call to action that celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an impact.

The Mandela Day campaign message is:

“Nelson Mandela has fought for social justice for 67 years. We’re asking you to start with 67 minutes.”
“We would be honoured if such a day can serve to bring together people around the world to fight poverty and promote peace, reconciliation and cultural diversity,” according to a statement issued on Mandela’s behalf.

This year marks the Nelson Mandela centenary, and we will be getting our team together in our head office in Cape Town to make sandwiches, which we will hand out to those in need in the surrounding area.

There are so many ways to give back to your community, and even if your deed is small, it will make a difference. So encourage yourself, and others, to get out there and find a way to help this Mandela Day. Let’s all remember the amazing culture and diversity that makes up South Africa, and work together to build a better country for all, in the name of Mandela.

For more information about Mandela Day, visit https://www.mandeladay.com.

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

New Process for Getting Police Clearance Certificate in SA

To mitigate identity fraud, the South African Police Service (SAPS) is introducing a new process for obtaining a police clearance certificate (PCC).

“SAPS has devised one such method to improve security measures to mitigate this risk,” SAPS said on Thursday.

A police clearance certificate is a document issued by the SAPS Criminal Record and Crime Scene Management stating whether or not any criminal offence has been recorded against the person.

It’s a document which provides confirmation of a person’s criminal status.

When and how the effects will take place

Members of the public are no longer expected to deliver their documentation to the Criminal Record Centre in Pretoria, as was previously the practice.

It is now the sole responsibility of the SAPS to compile and deliver the form to the Criminal Record Centre (CRC) on behalf of the applicant.

Costs involved

This service is rendered at R114 per application. The required tariff is payable in cash at the nearest police station, by bank-guaranteed check, banker’s draft or electronic payment in the SAPS account in favor of the National Commissioner.

Bank details

ABSA cheque account number 4054522787
Branch code 632005
Swift code ABSA ZAJJ
According to the SAPS, in the case of an electronic payment, the letters ‘PCC’ followed by the initials and surname of the applicant must be indicated as the reference.

The letters ‘PCC’ will indicate that the payment is for a police clearance certificate. Proof of payment must be attached to the application (SAPS 91(a), which will be provided to the applicant at his/her nearest police station.

What the process entails

The first step to obtaining a police clearance certificate is to visit your nearest police station in SA and notify a member of the SAPS that you wish to apply for a SA police clearance certificate.

The member will then guide you accordingly to the relevant member who will be responsible for the processing of your application. The applicant will be expected to subject himself/herself for a full set of fingerprints for the (SAPS 91a), which is the SA police clearance certificate form.

The applicant must ensure that he or she is in possession of a copy of his or her South African identity document or in possession of his or her official passport, a copy of which will be certified at the police station and attached to the application.

The applicant must provide a statement regarding his/her previous convictions and indemnify the SAPS against any liability which may result from furnishing information in this regard.

Finalized police clearance certificates will be returned to the station of origin and the applicant will be contacted for collection.

Upon collection, the applicant must again present the original Identity document or passport as confirmation of identity.

For full detailed information on this procedure visit www.saps.gov.za.

 

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: SAnews [1]. Image sources: [1].

Andrew Stegmann

SA Home Affairs is Going Paperless

South African Department of Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says the department will be moving to paperless applications for birth, marriage, and death registrations, as well as the printing of parents’ details on their children’s passports.

“This is another way of ‘meeting the future’, by rising to opportunities created by technological advancements for maximising client satisfaction,” Gigaba said.

Addressing the media in Pretoria on Wednesday, Gigaba said the Department of Home Affairs has reached another milestone in rolling-out its flagship programme of modernisation, which began in 2010.

“This system upgrade is a part of ongoing enhancements of the live-capture system to improve service quality by modernising processes.”

Gigaba explained that the end-product will be the automation of the way Home Affairs offices capture birth registration and issue certificates for births, marriages and deaths.

“Documents will now be saved electronically and be easily retrieved upon request, as opposed to the old paper-based legacy system,” he said.

Modernised offices to be affected by system upgrade

The live-capture system upgrade is scheduled to start on Friday, 13 July 2018. On this day, modernised offices, which are offices that accept smart ID card applications, will be unable to receive applications for IDs and passports, from 2pm to enable system back-up.

However, offices will attend to people whose applications are already being processed.

During the implementation of this upgrade, services for smart ID cards and passports will not be available in the 184 modernised offices, including at the department’s eHomeAffairs partners in the banking sector, with the exception of large offices.

All other services will be available, except for smart ID cards and passports.

The system upgrade entails minimal interruptions in the provision of ID and passport services between 13 July (from 2pm) and 20 July (until 4pm), with provinces affected at different times and to different degrees.

During the system upgrade period, Gigaba advised clients needing ID and passport-related services to visit large offices in their provinces, as these will be fully operational.

According to Gigaba, large offices would have been attended to on Sunday 15 July 2018, with no impact on services.

Work in the Gauteng province will also be carried out over the weekend of 14 – 15 July 2018, which means no office in Gauteng will experience disruption.

System upgrade phases

System upgrade: Phase 1

• Birth registration for children 0 to one year will be automated, meaning that clients will no longer complete paper forms for birth registration. This will be more convenient for clients, and will reduce opportunities for corruption and fraud.

• Marriages and deaths: This entails reprints of marriages and death certificates for clients that are already registered in the national population register (without filling paper forms).

• Printing of parents’ details in passports: Once Home Affairs has completed the upgrade and fully implemented in identified offices, the details of parents will be printed in the children’s passports. In this way, the department will have delivered also on the earlier Cabinet concession of easing travel with children.

Schedule of Implementation

Monday, 16 to Tuesday 17 July: Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal & participating banks.

Wednesday 18 to Thursday 19 July: Limpopo, North West & Eastern Cape.

Friday 20 July: Mpumalanga, Free State & Northern Cape.

Further details of subsequent phases will be announced in due course.

 

 

Sources: SA Government News Agency [1]. Image sources: [2].

Andrew Stegmann

South African Asylum Processes Undergoing Review

For Azama Damas, a matric drop-out, the march to Parliament yesterday was about highlighting the plight faced by fellow matric pupils who were refugees in South Africa.
The march coincided with World Refugee Day which is observed on June 20 each year to honour the spirit and courage of millions of refugees worldwide who have had to flee their homes and countries due to violence, war and other conflicts.

The 19-year-old Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) national was supposed to be doing her matric at Focus College in Wynberg.

She had hoped to be admitted to Stellenbosch University next year. Instead she is heartbroken at home as she doesn’t have documents.

Damas came to South Africa at a young age with her late father who had a permanent residency. Her father died four years ago. Her mother is in DRC but cannot afford to travel to South Africa.

“I also cannot afford to go back home and besides I don’t want to go back, things are horrible there. That’s why my father came here the first place. My father passed away in 2014 waiting for Home Affairs to put me on the system.”

The Voice of Africans for Change was at the forefront of the march which saw people from about six countries.

They protested for their human rights and called for the Department of Home Affairs to “stop defeating the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeal” and reopen the refugee reception office in Cape Town.

The Supreme Court of Appeal last year ordered the department to reopen the reception refugee office in Cape Town by March 31 of this year.

The office was yet to open, the group said.

Nijimbere Luqman, 32, from Burundi, said he was forced to leave his home due to war, persecution and violence.

“I have been here since 2016 I cannot work and my son cannot go to school because we don’t have papers. I have been surviving through the help of other people. We are not treated like humans here. We are suffering. My wife was left behind and was supposed to follow but to date I have not got hold of her. I think she might have been killed in the ongoing political war.”

Making a speech at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said that over the years South Africa had become one of the largest host countries for refugees worldwide, with more than 126000 refugees recorded since 2009, and many more asylum seekers.

“As we stand #WithRefugees, we must reflect on the enormous disruption and difficulty faced by refugees and displaced persons, and highlight the need to assist them by providing a safe place, and welcoming them into our communities, our schools, and our workplaces.

“South Africa remains committed to protecting refugees and strengthening our institutional arrangements in this regard.

“Accordingly, we are in the process of updating our policies and regulations with regard to international migration and refugees.

‘‘We intend further to strengthen our capacity to speedily process asylum claims through various interventions which are complemented by our new international migration policy which seeks to address the challenges occasioned by the large number of economic migrants who abuse the asylum seeker process to regularise their stay in South Africa,” Gigaba said.

He said in recent years, “spurious asylum” applications by economic migrants overwhelmed the system, resulting in inordinately long wait times for decisions for applicants.

“This made it extremely difficult to identify and respond to the needs of genuine refugees.

“Our new international migration policy presents a new approach to better manage irregular and economic migration, through regularisation of existing migrants already residing in South Africa, and creating new visa options for citizens of neighbouring countries to reside in South Africa legally.”

 

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: Okuhle Hlati via IOL [1]. Image sources: [1].