85% of Plasticview residents undocumented

Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga and officials from the Democratic Alliance (DA) briefed the media on Monday on the party’s plans to tackle illegal immigration and fix the Department of Home Affairs.

Plasticview 1 and 2 currently house 2700 people.

“When we did check marking in Plasticview, we realized that abut 85% of those living there are foreign nationals and 85% of them are actually undocumented,” he says.

Msimanga says the fact that most Plasticview residents are undocumented is a headache for the city.

“We have now been taken to court by the human rights lawyers, who say that if you are going to move these people, you are going to have to build houses for them. Legislation prohibits me from building anyone or even giving them a piece of land or even building them a house if they don’t have any kind of documentation, especially South African documentation.”

Msimanga says they have approached Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba for assistance.  

“This is why we are asking Minister Gigaba must come on board. Whether we go and find a way of regularising the people that are there, or make sure we are then able to assist people to go back home.”

The DA’s immigration plan, which was launched on Monday, includes strengthening the country’s boarder security, eradicating the corruption and inefficiency endemic of Home Affairs, arresting and detaining those who enter the country illegally and ensuring that undocumented immigrants are regularized.

DA spokesperson on Immigration, Jacques Julius, says data from Home Affairs has revealed that the asylum claims backlog currently sits at 140 000.

“According to the DHA, there is a backlog of 140 000 asylum claims which are yet to be finalized. Civil society organisations however argues that this number is understated because it does not account for claims which ‘fall out’’ of the system for various reasons, for example, permits not being renewed timeously,” he says.

Listen: