Immigration

Angolan who grew up in SA risks being sent back

Jesus Espirito Do Santos has lived in South Africa since he was three. He is at risk of being sent back to Angola where he was born. Yet he only speaks English and Afrikaans and can’t speak Portuguese.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 5 November 2013

Slow, unresponsive and unconcerned: How the Health Professions Council hurts patients

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is a statutory body that regulates health workers. It registers doctors and disciplines them if they do something wrong. If it had to perform its tasks properly, patients would benefit. Instead, according to several organisations and doctors, the HPCSA’s inefficiency hurts patients.

Delphine Pedeboy and GroundUp Staff

News | 30 October 2013

Daily grind of a Zimbabwean mother

Nancy Muzembe, originally from Zimbabwe, struggles against all the odds to give her son a good education.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 29 October 2013

Home Affairs continues to defy court order and refuses to serve new asylum seekers

A decision taken in 2012 by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to stop processing new applicants at the Cape Town refugee reception office has resulted in asylum seekers having to travel long distances at great cost to be documented and renew their permits.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 23 October 2013

Home Affairs employees demand reprimand for boss

On 15 October 2013, about 40 Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials protested outside their Cape Town office.The protest brings to a head several months of clashes between officials and DHA management.

Sibusiso Tshabalala

News | 21 October 2013

Citizenless Brian

What drives a 15-year-old boy to move to a neighbouring country on his own and without his guardian’s consent? Meet Brian Dlodlo, now a 20-year-old man from Zimbabwe who crossed to South Africa through Beitbridge Border Post as an unaccompanied minor in 2007. Brian has no identity papers. He is effectively the citizen of no country.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 16 October 2013

Angolans lose refugee status

Petro Nzazi (not his real name) and his young brother are refugees from Angola. They have lost their refugee status, and they are now left without any identity documents.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 25 September 2013

Asylum seeker claims intimidation

A Zimbabwean woman, Faith Muchina (not her real name), 48, claims that officials at the Cape Town Department of Home Affairs (DHA) intimidated her into changing her application for refugee status to cite economic and not political reasons. As a result she lost her asylum seekers status in October 2012 and is now illegally in the country. She has now been in the country for eight years.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 10 September 2013

GroundUp journalist harassed at Home Affairs

A GroundUp journalist was left shaken after she was harassed by security guards at the refugee reception centre in Cape Town while reporting a story.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 2 September 2013