The African National Congress (ANC) wants to prevent foreigners from marrying South African women in a bid to become citizens.
The ANC proposed that spousal and relatives visas should be done away with because the system is being “abused by foreign nationals” to settle in South Africa. This was contained in an additional discussion document distributed to delegates at the policy conference on Friday.
In the discussion document, ANC proposes that the Immigration Act should be tightened to contain fewer visa categories. The document further states that the spousal and relatives visas are in essence visitor’s visas.
The ANC argues that there is “no rational basis to link marriage and/or [a] form of relationship (relative) to the immigration factors”.
They state that the existing laws regarding marriage and children should be sufficient to cover foreigners marrying South Africans. The ANC wants citizenship laws to be tightened to avoid foreigners from becoming South Africans.
Part of the document reads:Citizenship laws must be tightened to avoid undeserving foreign nationals becoming SA citizens by default and through fraudulent means and in the process exploit the country for some criminal and underhanded business activities.
In dealing with asylum cases, ANC wants South Africa to copy what Canada and the UK are doing. They want South Africa to make a distinction between economic immigrants and refugees like Canada does.
The ANC noted that some employers are employing foreigners at the expense of South Africans. The party says this in turn creates tensions between South Africans and foreigners.
Part of the document reads:Unscrupulous employers” are also taking advantage and practising “modern-day slavery”, creating tension between unionised SA workers and foreigners. This unacceptable state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue unabated and the party has to do something about it.
