Cape Town - The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has denied they work with Operation Dudula as the department has its own inspectorate that deals with the issue of illegal foreign nationals.
He said they apply immigration laws when they deport or remove illegal foreign nationals from the country.
Operation Dudula has in recent times been launching provincial chapters after its launch in the North West province this week.
This comes after it marched in the Durban CBD a few weeks ago, and carried out several operations in Gauteng.
Its leader Nhlanhla Lux Dlamini has been leading several marches over the last few months.
IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe had asked Motsoaledi in a written question in Parliament whether his department was working with Operation Dudula.
“The department does not condone any illegal activities. The activities of Operation Dudula of identifying and forcefully removing alleged illegal foreign nationals in identified communities is not a programme of the department.
“The Department of Home Affairs, through its Inspectorate, has the legal mandate to ensure that all persons in South Africa are lawfully permitted to be here.
“The inspectorate does regular inspections and conducts investigations to detect those who may be here unlawfully. Multi-disciplinary operations with the South African Police Services and Metropolitan Police, including inspections of businesses, is a key source of the detection of illegal foreign nationals, their arrest and deportation,” said Motsoaledi.
He said illegal migration was a global problem, with many countries facing the influx of undocumented foreigners.
He said the government does not know the number of illegal foreign nationals in the country, because of the nature of how they come into the country.
Some of the Cabinet ministers have said illegal foreign nationals are numbering millions in South Africa.
But Motsoaledi said there were no official records of how many illegal foreign nationals are present in the country.
“The RSA government does not have a precise number of undocumented immigrants in the Republic, due to the clandestine nature of the act of being here illegally,” said Motsoaledi.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Current Affairs