Chaos at Home Affairs foreshore building

The incident happened when police attempted to restore sanity to the chaos that now characterizes the DHA process.

Clayton asked the security guards who controlled the queue if he could be served first because he was in pain but was refused and told he should go back and join the queue like everyone else. Clayton said he came to the Foreshore offices at 5am hoping to be served by the end of business hours on Monday. His asylum document was set to expire on the same day. He is worried that he might be deported or penalised for late renewal since he will not be able to return to Home Affairs for some time due to his injury. When he asked the security guards to organise an ambulance for him they refused.

Clayton’s story is just one example of the daily chaos and unfriendly environment at the DHA Foreshore in Cape Town. Children, pregnant women and the disabled have a particularly hard time. Besides the ever-present foul odours and dirty toilets, there are often stampedes at the offices. Just three weeks ago police fired tear gas into the crowd in an attempt to disperse those seeking to renew their asylum papers. Asylum seekers have to renew their papers every three to six months.

There used to be more order to the system. In the past, different days of the week were reserved for different nationalities and first time applicants. If you were a first time applicant, you would come to DHA on a Tuesday. Somalis were instructed to come on Thursdays. Zimbabweans were assigned Friday, and so on. However, now that the DHA no longer accepts new applicants, the former orderly system has changed. All nationalities are served on the same days and are simply instructed to form one long queue. There is also no separate queue for people with different issues such as lost documents, status renewal or requests for clearance letters for bank accounts.

A Jordanian asylum seeker told GroundUp, “I had two long days at Home Affairs. It was a chaotic experience as usual. The lack of the simplest management skills by the people running the place is bizarre.” He explained that many people queue from 3am in the hope of getting served. They light fires to keep warm and sleep in the queue. He continued:

The police come often because of the many fights. They come to show their power and then leave not thinking to fix the main reason for the fights and to force the DHA to provide a safe and clean waiting area. You see the police walking by pieces of sharp wire and big stones all over the waiting area. These are often used as weapons in fights.

I wonder why would the City of Cape Town allows this to happen, two minutes walk from the Harbour Bridge Hotel in the CBD? Is it a failure of management or a racist policy against immigrants?

The spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, Solly Malatsi, told GroundUp that because DHA is a national government entity, provincial governments and the Mayor’s office had no jurisdiction whatsoever over it.

Anthony Muteti, a representative of People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), which has been monitoring the DHA for three weeks, has observed that the new system and a lack of necessary monitoring of security services is responsible for the current challenges. The DHA does not have a management team to ensure that security is doing its job properly. Muteti also accuses security of abusive behaviour such as encouraging bribes and beating people. The removable toilets are also in a bad state and, for the three weeks he has observed the DHA, he said he only saw them being cleaned once.

When contacted to comment on the allegations, the Department of Home Affairs Western Cape did not respond to GroundUp’s email or telephone.

This article was updated after it was published to include the Mayor’s spokesperson’s comment.