Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has confirmed that documents released by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) showing the Minister, during his tenure as Minister of Home Affairs, approved the Gupta family’s application for early naturalisation are genuine, but maintains the application was approved lawfully.
On Tuesday, June 12, the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) released paperwork showing Gigaba granted the Gupta family ‘early naturalisation’, even though their application was initially denied by Mr. GG Hlatshwayo, on behalf of the Director General, as it did not meet the requirements in terms of section 5(1)(b)of the South African Act 2010 of having five years of physical residence in South Africa.
In a letter dated May 30, 2015, Gigaba wrote: "I have decided by the virtue of the powers vested in me under section 5(9) in terms of the South African Citizenship Amendments Act 2010 to waive the residential requirements in regards to your application for naturalisation and grant you early naturalisation."
The EFF argues this is unlawful. In a statement, the party said the Act states the Minister may under exceptional circumstances grant a certificate of naturalisation as South African citizen to an application that does not meet the requirements. “But Gigaba has effectively used this clause to make favours to the Gupta family in a situation where there are absolutely no exceptional circumstances to bypass the law,” the party said.
With respect to the Gupta family naturalisation application, Johan Lubbe, Managing Member of Immigration Boutique, says the Minister of Home Affairs does have the ministerial right to override any decision based on his own motivation, but that the process would be unlawful if the family did not submit an appeal. "There should be a paper trail documenting the process of appeal,” Lubbe says.
When questioned on whether the Gupta family formally appealed the initial rejection of their application for naturalisation, the Department of Home Affairs told Tourism Update: "The department is gathering all the facts on the matter and will revert back with the findings.”
In an analysis published on Daily Maverick, Stephen Grootes outlines the difficult position in which Gigaba currently finds himself.
During his tenure as Home Affairs Minister, Gigaba was referred to as the “Tourism Terminator” in Parliament. It was under his leadership that damaging immigration were introduced. He defended the requirements for child travelers on the basis of cases of child trafficking, since found to have been exaggerated.
Earlier this year, the Department of Home Affairs made headlines with claims that 15 child trafficking cases had been detected at OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg. Later it emerged that not all the cases were child trafficking – as some involved parental abduction and illegal adoption.
Last year Gigaba introduced visa requirements for New Zealand nationals.
One of Gigaba’s last acts as Home Affairs Minister was to announce that no changes would be made to South Africa’s child travel regulations.
On Tuesday the Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba confirmed that the documents circulated through social media yesterday with respect to the Gupta family naturalisation application are genuine.
