Illegal immigrants, particularly those guilty of crime and illegal land occupation, will soon be deported to their country of origin.
The Tshwane Metro and the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, agreed on Friday to cooperate and address the problem. It is expected that a formal cooperative agreement will be entered into soon.
The FF Plus discussed how to address several pressing problems, including illegal land occupation, crime, the sale of counterfeit goods, cable theft, illegal electricity connections and extortion, with Minister Schreiber on Friday.
One of the biggest issues is foreigners who illegally occupy abandoned buildings in the city centre where they rent rooms to other undocumented foreigners which poses a health, fire and safety risk.
It is suspected that syndicates are working with city officials, law firms and the deeds office to transfer properties to criminals’ names.
Large quantities of counterfeit goods are sold in Pretoria West, where many Somalis live, while drug trafficking is at the order of the day in Sunnyside (known as Little Lagos), where mostly Nigerians live.
Centurion and Pretoria East, where Zimbabweans and Mozambicans are concentrated, are affected by cable theft and infrastructure vandalism.
In addition to helping with immigration control, the Minister was also asked to help with immediate deportation, more stringent border control and investigating corruption at South African borders.
The FF Plus is of the opinion that other departments should also be involved to curb the problem effectively.
The illegal hijacking of buildings in Tshwane must be stopped, so, the FF Plus is committed to eradicating the problem and the crime that goes hand in hand with it.
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