Andrew Stegmann

Home Affairs rolling out big upgrade for smart ID and passport system

The Department of Home Affairs is shutting down ID and passport services this weekend to upgrade its systems.

Department of Home Affairs branches around the country will not offer ID or passport services on 27 and 28 August 2016.

This is according to notices placed in Home Affairs offices informing visitors of a scheduled systems upgrade due to take place over the weekend.

A senior Home Affairs staff member who is not authorised to speak to the media told MyBroadband they are expecting a “very big” upgrade.

The staff member couldn’t reveal details about the upgrade, but said it was aimed at Home Affairs’ new paperless systems.

These upgrades aim to address challenges and add features that have been identified.

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Andrew Stegmann

An open letter to Home Affairs

Please can you help us understand why the application for Temporary Residence Visa for my husband Christian van der Schuur was rejected once again, for the fourth time in 2 years.

This after all legal documents were submitted which indicated that he is legally married (now for 5 years), legally and biologically the father of a 4-year-old child and legally (was until 3 months ago when you deported him unjustifiably) an employee of IBM for 10 years with a tax number.

My child was forced to live without her father for two months – and now suffers from anxiety everytime her father is not in her sight. You have rejected many applications and many appeals, all for different reasons – none of which makes sense.

 After the ridiculous expense of a lawyer, you had asked him to come back to SA and apply again but then rejected his application right after.

What games are your trying to play? We have been told by many that if we pay amounts between R10 000 to R100 000 back door, we’d get our visa within a week. I have proof that a few people I know have received successful outcomes by bribing your home affairs officials.

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Andrew Stegmann

The night run: how Zimbabwean traders are dodging suffocating import restrictions

On 17 June Zimbabwe’s authorities imposed restrictions on imports of foreign dental fillings, kitchen sinks, baby formulae, pencils and much more. Cross border vendors, dependent on this trade to survive, have become desperate.

Long distance buses with empty trailers can now be seen on the Zimbabwean side of the border. Angry traders set ablaze a warehouse full of seized tomato cans, blankets and farming implements at the Beitbridge border crossing in July, as police ran for cover.

According to Zimbabwe’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, Michael Bimha the restrictions have been implemented to “allow our local companies to retool and increase production. It is temporary, and we will remove the law after some time.”

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Andrew Stegmann

School denies fee exemption to woman because she’s an asylum seeker

Lawyer and provincial department say school is legally wrong

Parow West Primary School has denied Rwandan asylum seeker, Beatrice Ingabire (37), fees exemption for her grade three child even though she qualifies.

In December 2014 the school sent a debt collector to take her belongings because she failed to pay her school fees debt of R12,000, accumulated by her other two children. “When she got inside my house she was shocked with my living conditions. She wept bitterly and asked why the school was doing this,” said Ingabire. She says the debt collector wrote on her paper that the woman is very poor. She asked Ingabire to pay R100 each month. But she could only do so for two months.

“I have nothing; I am a single sick woman staying in a small room with four children,” she says. She receives some money monthly from the Wynberg Refugee Centre and handouts from her church. “I am about to be thrown out of the room because I failed to pay rent for two consecutive months,” said Ingabire. Despite having a chronic condition that makes it very hard for her to work, she does occasionally earn income by doing cleaning jobs.

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