ESSAY 01
TUTOR: Lauren Van Rheede
TOPIC: You are a senior official (Director-General) in a South African government department. A new minister has been appointed to the department. Your assignment will take the form of a briefing by a director-general to his/her minister. You are required to write a briefing to the new minister setting what changes might be made in government policy to improve the performance of the department. The briefing must include historical context to the policy, current policy and changes that could be made to improve policy.
DEPARTMENT CHOSEN: Department of Home Affairs
DEPARTMENTAL WEBSITE: www.dha.gov.za
This essay acts a briefing aimed at addressing policy issues of the Department of Home Affairs. There are a number of policy issues that exist within the Department of Home Affairs that need to be addressed such as the following: The issue of recruitment with regards to staffing, corruption that exists within the department, service delivery and others. However, this briefing will focus on addressing immigration policy issues. This briefing will be following a number of steps in the above mentioned issue of immigration. It will have nine subheadings acting as guidelines towards understanding what is being spoken about and these are as follows: Issue, Background, Policy Challenge, Actors, Policy Results, Policy Alternatives, Policy Option, Policy Actions and Resources.
ISSUE
As stated in the introduction the core issue focused on in this briefing is one of the immigration policies. One should also bear in mind that this issue alone brings in related problems which will later be discussed in this briefing. However, one of the major related issues brought by immigration is Xenophobia. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) discovered that “Black South Africans do not easily accept
Bibliography: Available from: www.queensu.ca.samp/publications/pressarticles/1997/Blanch.htm. Accessed on [March 24, 2014]. Brand, R Crush, J. 2000. Regulating Migration in the 21st Century: A South African Perspective. Available from: www.queensu.ca/samp/migdocs/speeches/crush.htm. Accessed on [March 22, 2014]. CRUSH J. and WILLIAMS V. 2001. “Making up the numbers: measuring illegal immigration to South Africa”, Southern African Migration Project, Migration Policy Brief n° 3. Department of Home Affairs. (2001-2004). Various official media releases. Farquhar, G. 2000. Blacks ‘Racist’ Towards Foreigners – Report”. Available from: www.iol.co.za. Accessed on [March 23, 2014]. Gordin, J Lewis, D. 1996. Labour Migration. Available from: www.polity.org.za:80/govdocs/green_papers/migration/lewisch9.htm. Accessed on [March 20, 2014]. Kotzé, H. and Hill, L. 1997. “Emergent Migration Policy in a Democratic South Africa” in International Migration Quarterly Review. Vol 35, No 1. Peberdy, S. 1997. A Brief History of South African Immigration Policy. Available from: www.polity.org.za:80/govdocs/green_papers/migration/histsa.htm. Accessed on [March 23, 2014]. Mokwena, M. 2000, “Arrest Made in ‘Money for Visas’ Scam” in Cape Times. 13/12/1999. Available from: www.iol.co.za. Accessed on [March 20,2014].