Johannesburg - A political vendetta is at the centre of the government’s decision to deny permanent residency to Swedish socialist Liv Shange.
Shange made this claim on Wednesday at a media briefing in Joburg. She said the decision would force her to leave the country with her two South African-born children next week.
She has to leave the country before her temporary residence visa expires.
Shange made headlines in 2013 when ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe accused her of being “at the centre of the anarchy in the platinum belt”, following the 2012 Marikana massacre in which 34 striking miners were fatally shot by police. The SACP has also accused her of fanning the strikes in Rustenburg’s platinum belt.
Shange, who at the time was the national organiser of the Democratic Socialist Movement, helped advise and co-ordinate striking miners who were demanding a R12 500 wage.
“The ANC itself has spelt out the issues it has with me and with WASP (Workers and Socialist Party) and… the logical conclusion is that if the opportunity presents itself, then they’ll use it to get me out of the country,” Shange said.
“How I’ve been treated by the government… is a witch-hunt, it’s harassment. I have been singled out over years now as responsible for anarchy, instability and deliberately wanting to destabilise the economy of the country.”
In 2013, it emerged that security agencies were probing Shange’s immigration status and her role in the mining crisis.
She has been living in South Africa since 2004 when she started her studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Later that year, she married her former husband, Xolani, who she had met at a conference in Belgium in 2002.
Shange lost her passport and spousal visa in December 2010 after she was mugged. When she went to the Department of Home Affairs, she was told there was no record of her spousal visa. This was despite her being in possession of a reference number.
As a result, in 2013, Shange and her children were denied entry back into South Africa after a visit to her family in Sweden. She was allowed into the country after enormous international pressure, petitions and a diplomatic spat between South Africa and Sweden.
Mantashe denied that the ANC has had anything to do with Home Affairs’ decision to deny Shange permanent residence.
“It’s got nothing to do with the ANC, it’s pure coincidence. There are many people applying for permanent residence, and their statuses have nothing to do with me. I’m not Home Affairs,” he said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said the department had no knowledge of Shange’s background and were not swayed by politics.
“The guys who assess these things don’t know these things you’re talking about. The people who are doing the rejection are just applying the law, they’re not subject to outside influences,” he said.
Tshwete added that Shange should ensure she’d applied for the correct visa, a spousal one.
Shange, who appealed the department’s decision, would continue with her quest for permanent residence in South Africa, where she wants to bring up her children.
“Although I have to take a step back at the moment, we’re not going to abandon this fight. I’m very sad to go. I’ve lived my whole adult life here. This is not of my own choosing.”
The Star