Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Velenkosini Hlabisa, plans to introduce a bill in Parliament aimed at speeding up the process of deporting illegal foreign nationals to their countries, emphasising that while the party is not xenophobic, “South Africans come first".
Hlabisa made the announcement during the party’s provincial council meeting, held in Johannesburg, on Sunday.
He said that the government needs to ensure that undocumented foreign nationals who are in the country illegally are quickly returned to their homelands.
Hlabisa urged a revision of the legislation governing the deportation of illegal foreigners.
Hlabisa said while IFP advocates for the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals, he stressed that the party's stance is not xenophobic.
“We want to be clear; we are not xenophobic. We are against xenophobia, but South Africans must come first,” he said.
Hlabisa said the deportation of illegal foreigners could assist South Africans in securing job opportunities currently held by undocumented foreigners.
“When the IFP campaigned last year, we were very clear that the foreign nationals who do not provide a specialised skill in South Africa and who are not documented must be assisted to go back to their respective countries,” Hlabisa said.
Hlabisa added that the current process of the deportation is being hindered by legal delays.
“What we have discovered in government is that in terms of law, it is not easy to assist them to go back,” he said.
Hlabisa, who serves as the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) in the Government of National Unity (GNU), said the party will focus on legislation that would focus on the repatriation of illegal immigrants faster and more efficiently.
“The IFP will focus the government's attention on legislation that will make repatriation of illegal immigrants easy and possible at the fastest available opportunity so that the work that does not require a specialised skill is only made at the availability of the South Africans and that the foreign nationals who are in our country illegally are assisted to go back to their respective countries.”
Hlabisa also voiced concerns over the law enforcement’s inability to trace illegal foreign nationals involved in criminal activities.
“Because even in instances of crime, there are people who are no longer able to be traced and arrested simply because you may never know who committed that crime because there are people in our country with whom we have no record of their fingerprints,” he explained.
Hlabisa said the introduction of the deportation bill will be IFP’s focus in the next four years.
“So now the promise we made is going to be our focus in the next coming four years to ensure that South Africa belongs to South Africans.
“And that every foreign national with no specialised skill is assisted to go back to his or her original country,” Hlabisa said.
ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) are among political parties that also demand illegal foreign nationals be deported to their homelands.
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