Refugees and asylum seekers waiting to have their papers sorted out at the Airport Industria refugee office in Cape Town were given a stern warning by a senior home affairs official on Monday after one of them was caught trying to bribe a department employee.
The Cape Times visited the office on Monday after some refugees complained of long queues and poor service.
Addressing some 100 refugees, Norma Xesha, the refugee status determination officer, said there were reports of a refugee trying to entice an official with cash.
"We saw someone trying to give money. We are getting paid by the government to do the job. Do not try to bribe us. If you want to bribe someone, go and do that outside of this office. Don't corrupt the people in this office. If you have too much money and you can't handle it, go and give it to charity," said Xesha.
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The person in question was not arrested, but Xesha warned that should a similar incident happen, the police would be called in.
The incident took place during Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba's visit to various home affairs offices around the city.
His spokesperson, Khulekani Ntshangase, said Gigaba's visit was to address issues of corruption and service delivery at the various centres in the Western Cape.
"The issue, or the reason we came here, was to address the situation and to further assist, so we as a department can fully understand the challenges facing home affairs officials," said Ntshangase.
He said corruption was one of the main challenges facing the department and officials were easily enticed into accepting bribes.
"(Gigaba) is dealing with that. It's (corruption) a matter that he is looking at. He is also looking into whether the conditions are making it fertile for anybody to try and bribe officials. We always say that we've got to make sure that there is easy access (for people) and to close all loopholes that could lead to any forms of corruption," said Ntshangase.
He said Gigaba would be addressing home affairs officials from across the province, at a meeting in the city today.
The refugee centre deals with cases from 1998 to July 2005 only. All new applicants are dealt with at the Cape Town office.
One of the department's latest interventions in speeding up services in its Western Cape offices was the advertising of 10 positions for interpreters and refugee status officers as part of Operation Backlog.
Lack of capacity and inadequate availability of resources to register asylum seekers led to a massive backlog of applications. Four posts for interpreters and six for refugee status determination officers were advertised.
Operation Backlog was launched earlier this year by Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as the department was faced with a backlog of 110 000 applications nationally.
Cape Town's backlog stood at 22 000 at the beginning of the project.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Times on November 28, 2006
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