9 October 2025
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be here with you this morning.
Over the next two days, this event will engage on the many facets of migration on the side-lines of South Africa’s historic hosting of the G20 summit.
It is indeed fitting that the theme of migration receives dedicated attention as part of this important global event.
Politically, socially and economically, migration has rarely been higher on the global agenda than it is today.
Unfortunately, prominent as the topic may be, much of the discourse around migration has become reductionist, seeking to reduce an inherently complex and multi-faceted social phenomenon to simple one-dimensional thinking.
In many cases, this is done deliberately to further specific socio-political aims.
One of the problems with seeking to erase the complexity, the nuance, and the costs and benefits from a phenomenon as inherently multidimensional as migration, is that it presents a warped picture of a simple normative reality, of good and bad, of us and them, of either benefit without cost, or of cost without benefit.
In turn, framing the complex challenges of migration in such reductionist terms opens the door for opportunists to sell simple solutions – no matter how morally reprehensible, how impractical, or how dishonest they may be.
This is all done deliberately in our age of social media populism, because selling quick fixes you can never deliver seems like a viable shortcut to political power.
But it is not.
Because once you have gained power on the back of populist promises that can never be implemented, or which have to come at unbearable social cost, the very same people who were whipped into a frenzy by those promises on migration will turn against the populist him- or herself.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While a great many politicians around the world today are running away from the complexity, from the trade-offs, and from the systematic reform required to build sustainable migration systems, South Africa’s Home Affairs ecosystem, which includes the Department of Home Affairs and the Border Management Authority, is running towards it.
We are confronting complexity because we understand that human progress has never happened when we shy away from problems, or when we rely on dishonesty and scapegoating to frame solutions.
Progress happens when we acknowledge the full reality of what confronts us, both the challenges and the opportunities, and when we are driven to implement sustained reforms over time to solve complex problems.
In many ways since I assumed this office 15 months ago, I have been working to confront complexity, to honestly communicate with the public about what can be done and about what cannot, and to implement the Government of National Unity’s commitment to reasserting constitutionalism and the rule of law as the guiding light for all that we do.
I have done so because I believe you can never build a successful society on populist promises or quick fixes.
And because I believe that it is only by being honest, by demonstrating sustained progress over time even when there is no magic wand to solve every problem overnight, that we can restore trust and faith in our democracy.
For the growing populism we see all around us, including in the migration space, is a symptom of society’s declining faith in democracy, driven in part by social media manipulation, not only in South Africa but around the world.
The solution to this greatest of all problems, is not to embrace or compete with populism, or to run from complex problems, but to affirm our commitment to fundamental institutional reform that delivers sustainable solutions, grounded in the values of our constitutional democracy.
So, what does this all mean in practice, including for this summit?
It means that, when we engage on matters of migration, we must avoid reductionism at all costs, and in all directions.
It is wrong to suggest that uncontrolled migration does not present serious challenges to our society.
It is wrong to suggest that any country in the world, including South Africa, could simply accept unfettered migration, or give up on the quest to control its borders.
It is wrong to suggest that we must not implement deportations or criminal consequences where people have broken South Africa’s immigration laws.
It is also wrong to think that one country in our region can or should bear be the impact of migration and refugee flows alone.
One part of the complexity I speak about, therefore requires those who find themselves on the pro-migration side of debates to acknowledge that no sovereign state must ever give up control of its borders, and that South Africa specifically must dramatically enhance our enforcement powers to restore the rule of law.
Through the revisions we are currently making to the White Paper on Citizenship, Migration and Refugee Protection, we will further seek to share the very real costs that asylum claims place on our country more equitable throughout the region, by adopting a route-based approach that does not allow claimants to “pick and choose” South Africa as a preferred destination.
If we are to honestly confront the complexity of migration with an eye towards implementing sustainable reform that harnesses benefits while mitigating costs, then this must include strengthening border management and the rule of law in the immigration and refugee systems.
On the other hand, the shunning of reductionism and the embrace of complexity also requires us to reject populism that scapegoats foreigners for failed economic policies, or that promises quick fixes that will only deliver misery.
That is why we must reject claims that migration is inherently bad, or that it brings no benefits for the host country.
In fact, research from National Treasury has identified the lack of skilled immigration as one of the key impediments behind economic growth and job creation in South Africa.
Furthermore, migration in the form of tourism presents one of the greatest opportunities to create jobs for South Africans, with the latest figures showing the one new formal job is created for every 13 tourists attracted to our country.
Additionally, many of the most successful entrepreneurs around the world come from migrant backgrounds, precisely because international migration often selects for people who are go-getters and determined to build a better life in their new country.
I recently saw this up close, when I naturalised two brothers, Vincent and Emmanual Tshituka.
The Tshituka brothers came to South Africa as child refugees from the Congo.
After working their way through the ranks, both are today highly-regarded professional rugby players, with Vincent recently having made his debut for the Springboks following his naturalisation.
Before the match, I met with both brothers and had the honour to be in the stands when Vincent ran onto the field for the very first time as our newest Springbok.
This is not only the latest chapter in the story of the Springboks as a unifying force that shows us that we are indeed stronger together, but it is also a case study in how immigration and refugees can and do contribute to building our nation.
It is therefore both morally and factually wrong to scapegoat entire groups of people on the basis of their origin, and we must reject all forms of xenophobia with the contempt it deserves.
If there is one country in the world that ought to understand just how repulsive xenophobia is, it is South Africa, where an entire governing system was built around xenophobia – based on the othering, the scapegoating, and the supposed inferiority of entire groups of human beings based on their ethnicity.
Apartheid was xenophobia in its ultimate form, and we can never again allow it to take hold in South Africa.
In order to put into practice a vision that does not play into false binaries, but which seeks to harness the power of migration while mitigating the risk, Home Affairs is relentlessly focused on implementation.
One of the key reasons why debates around migration have become so fraught is the sense that governments around the world do not have a proper grip on managing immigration.
In South Africa’s case, government has become notorious for talking a lot and doing little.
At Home Affairs, we are determined to turn that around.
Our job is not to be seen to be doing something, it is to actually do something.
That is why our apex priority under this administration is to pursue digital transformation to automate and digitalise as many aspects of civics, immigration and asylum seeker management as possible.
We have already made enormous strides in just a few short months.
Significant aspects of the asylum seeker process have been automated.
The first phase of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which will digitalise visa processes from beginning to end, is being rolled out this month.
It will start with tourist visas for G20 attendees who require a visa to enter South Africa and, over the coming months, it will be scaled up for all tourists, and eventually for all visa categories.
Linked to the ETA is our work to automate entry and exit procedures based on secure biometrics, which kicks off this month at OR Tambo and Cape Town International Airport and will gradually expand to all ports of entry and to other visa categories.
Our end goal is clear: the ETA must become the single point of entry for all visa applications, which will be adjudicated quickly and automatically through the latest machine learning and artificial intelligence technology.
This reform aims to eliminate the scope for human discretion, bias and corruption, while also building a much more efficienct visa system and enhancing national security.
At the end point of this reform, we will ensure that no one enters South Africa without an ETA linked to their biometrics.
Similarly, our work to build a world-class Digital ID system is underway through our new digital partnership model with a range of banks.
In the first phase, this project will expand access to Smart IDs to hundreds more bank branches and onto digital banking apps, with the system secured through biometrics.
This will provide the basis to do away with the Green ID book as a valid form of ID.
This document has been found to be the most defrauded on the African continent, and replacing the 18 million Green IDs still in circulation with access to Smart IDs and Digital ID holds the key to eliminating identity theft and financial while combatting illegal immigration.
At the same time, we are working to secure more resources for the BMA in order to build on our successful pilot project that, for the very first time, deployed drones to the border environment this past year.
Over the previous festive season, the use of drones at certain land borders increased the BMA’s ability to detect and prevent attempted illegal crossings by 215%.
We urgently need to fund the BMA, so that we can dramatically expand the use of technology to secure the border law enforcement area.
The rapid progress that the Home Affairs ecosystem is making in implementing these reforms should be a source of encouragement to everyone in the immigration sector.
It is through these reforms that we will take back our civics and immigration functions from the criminal syndicates that have long exploited manual, paper-based processes to further their corrupt aims.
This is also how we enhance control over immigration and win back public trust that migration is something that can be managed within the framework of our Constitution and the rule of law, provided that there is political will and leadership that embraces modernisation and complexity.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the increasingly fraught and populist global environment, South Africa has a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the world that through determined leadership which asserts rather than scapegoats constitutionalism and the rule of law, countries can create migration systems that are more secure, efficient and fair to both migrants and host populations.
At Home Affairs, we are determined to do exactly that.
Not only in order to improve South Africa’s own migration management system, but demonstrate to the world that by replacing reductionism with an approach that confronts complexity and embraces modernisation, we can deepen trust in democracy and the rule of law through improving migration management.
The values expressed in South Africa’s Constitution are worth fighting for.
Scapegoating, xenophobia and populist lies are worth fighting against.
Truth, complexity and real reform are worth fighting for.
Home Affairs is up for the fight.
Thank you.
ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS