Malusi Gigaba (centre) briefs the media on the new immigration regulations 29 May 2014. GovernmentZA/Flickr. Creative Commons.
An important public debate regarding child trafficking and immigration is currently taking place in South Africa. Media coverage of this increasingly heated discussion has focused on two duelling government ministers, both of whom are senior members of the ruling African National Congress. In one corner, we have Derek Hanekom, South Africa’s minister of tourism, who recently broke party discipline by publicly talking about the “worrying” impact of new immigration regulations on international tourism. In the other corner sits Malusi Gigaba, the minister of home affairs, who has strongly defended the new regulations by repeatedly emphasising their central role in “the protection of children” and ensuring that South Africa is not “viewed by international traffickers as a possible destination”.
The key provisions of these new immigration regulations (Gazette 37679, RG 10199, Govt Notice 413) require adults travelling with children to produce the 'unabridged' birth certificates of the children—a term which is largely unknown to people outside South Africa—at airports and border posts in order to enter or leave South Africa. If only one parent is travelling with the child, hardly an uncommon scenario, they are required to secure an affidavit from the absent parent confirming that they have permission to travel with the child, along with a certified copy of the non-travelling parent’s identity document or passport. These new requirements came into effect in June 2015, and apply to both South African citizens and foreigners travelling to and from South Africa.
