Criminality or monopoly? Informal immigration enforcement in South Africa

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 465-481

  Vigneswaran, Darshan ^a   Araia, Tesfalem ^a   Hoag, Colin ^b   Tshabalala, Xolani ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CORRUPTION; IMMIGRATION POLICY; MIGRANT WORKER; MONOPOLY; SMUGGLING;

GAUTENG; JOHANNESBURG; SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 77954166489     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2010.485797     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. There is no reliable estimate of the numbers of Zimbabwean nationals currently residing in neighbouring countries. For an 'educated guess' at the numbers in South Africa
2. see D. Makina, 'Profile of Migrant Zimbabweans in South Africa: A Pilot Study' (IDASA, 2007), available at http://www.idasa.org.za/index.asp, retrieved on 2 December 2008.
3. J.-F. Bayart, S. Ellis, and B. Hibou (eds), 'From Kleptocracy to the Felonious State?', in The Criminalization of the State in Africa (Oxford, James Currey, 1999), p. 15.
4. A. Minnaar, 'A Symbiotic Relationship? Organised Crime and Corruption in South Africa' (paper presented at the 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference, Durban, 1999)
5. cited in J. Irish and K. Qhobosheane, 'South Africa', in P. Gastrow (ed.), Penetrating State and Business: Organised Crime in Southern Africa (Pretoria, Institute for Security Studies, 2003). Various authors pursued similar lines of interrogation in subsequent years. For example, Mark Shaw specifically identified West African criminal networks as a key vector of South Africa's incorporation into international drug smuggling and fraud cartels. He also established that West Africans, and principally Nigerians had relied heavily upon corruption to obtain illegitimate documentation and facilitate illicit trafficking activities.
6. See M. Shaw, 'West African Criminal Networks in South and Southern Africa', African Affairs, 101 (2002), pp. 291-316.
7. Irish and Qhobosheane, 'South Africa';
8. T. Leggett, Rainbow Tenement: Crime and Policing in Inner Johannesburg (Pretoria, Institute for Security Studies, 2003);
9. B. Maharaj and R. Rajkumar, 'The "Alien Invasion" in South Africa: Illegal Immigrants in Durban', Development Southern Africa, 14, 2 (1997), pp. 255-73;
10. H. Solomon, Of Myths and Migration: Illegal Immigration into South Africa (Pretoria, UNISA Press, 2003).
11. J.A. Andersson, 'Informal Moves, Informal Markets: International Migrants and Traders from Mzimba District, Malawi', African Affairs, 105, 420 (2006), pp. 375-97;
12. D.B. Coplan, 'A River Runs Through It: The Meaning of the Lesotho-Free State Border', African Affairs, 100 (2001), pp. 81-116
13. A. Fadahunsi and P. Rosa, 'Entrepreneurship and Illegality: Insights from the Nigerian Cross-Border Trade', Journal of Business Venturing, 17 (2002), pp. 397-429;
14. J. MacGaffey and V. Mukoya, The Real Economy of Zaire: The Contribution of Smuggling & Other Unofficial Activities to National Wealth (London, James Currey, 1991);
15. S.A. Peberdy, 'Border Crossings: Small Entrepreneurs and Cross-Border Trade Between South Africa and Mozambique', Tijdschrift voor Economische en Social Geografie, 91, 4 (2000), pp. 361-78.
16. Andersson, 'Informal Moves, Informal Markets'.
17. Coplan, 'A River Runs Through It', p. 81.
18. J. Roitman, 'The Ethics of Illegality in the Chad Basin', in J. and J. Comaroff, Law and Disorder in the Postcolony (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2006);
19. J. Roitman, 'Productivity in the Margins: The Reconstitution of State Power in the Chad Basin', in V. Das and D. Poole (eds), Anthropology in the Margins of the State (Santa Fe, NM; Oxford UK, School of American Research Press, James Currey, 2004).
20. C. Tilly, 'War Making and State Making as Organized Crime', in P.B. Evans, D. Rueschemeyer and T. Skocpol (eds) Bringing the State Back In, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 169.
21. J.E. Thomson, Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern Europe (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994).
22. J. Torpey, 'Coming and Going: On the Monopolization of the Legitimate "Means of Movement"', Sociological Theory, 16, 3 (1998), p. 239.
23. M. Coleman, 'A Geopolitics of Engagement: Neoliberalism, the War on Terrorism, and the Reconfiguration of US Immigration Enforcement', Geopolitics, 12, 4 (2007), pp. 607-34.
24. V. Guiraudon and G. Lahav, 'Comparative Perspectives on Border Control: Away from the Border and Outside the State', in P. Andreas and T. Snyder (eds), The Wall Around the West: State Borders and Immigration Controls in North America and Europe (Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).
25. D. Vigneswaran, 'Incident Reporting: Experimental Data Collection Methods and Migration Governance', Working Papers, 16 (International Migration Institute, University of Oxford, 2009).
26. 'Zimbabwe Can't Afford' Passports' (2006), available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/6176373.stm, retrieved on 7 December 2008.
27. This situation is rapidly changing since the recent adoption of a visa free entry system between the two countries.
28. According to the Immigration Amendment Act (no. 13 of 2002), as amended in 2004, all persons who register a claim for asylum at a South African border should be admitted and provided with a permit allowing them to stay in the country for 14 days until they lodge a formal claim at a Refugee Reception Office in the interior.
29. This term should be taken to include both larger 'buses' and the privately-owned and operated 'mini-vans' which account for the majority of public transport across the border line.
30. One smuggler who we spoke to had begun working in the area since 1995. Interview with MM, Zimbabwean/South African smuggler, 8 April 2008.
31. Interview with JS, Zimbabwean/South African smuggler, Musina, 29 March 2008.
32. Interview with AA, Ethiopian smuggler, Beitbridge, 29 March 2008.
33. Interview with GC, Zimbabwean smuggler, Beitbridge, 25 March 2008.
34. Interview with SS, Police Officer, Musina, 22 March 2008. 24 This is the term used in the Immigration Act (n. 13 of 2002).
35. In May 2009 the Gauteng High Court ruled that the Musina facility was unlawful and unconstitutional and ordered it to be closed but the DHA and SAPS have continued to use the facility, Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA), 'Protecting Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Immigrants in South Africa' (2009), available at http://www.cormsa.org.za/research/cormsa-reports/, retrieved on 15 September 2009, pp. 33-4.
36. CoRMSA, 'Protecting Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Immigrants', p. 32.
37. Human Rights Watch, 'Unprotected Migrants: Zimbabweans in South Africa's Limpopo Province' (2006).
38. Interview with Commissioner Mathebula, South African Police Services, 20 August 2007.
39. Interview with SS, Police Officer, Musina, 22 March 2008.
40. Interview with VM, Zimbabwean migrant, Musina, 7 April 2008.
41. South Africa has flirted with various regularisation schemes for Zimbabweans but at time of writing had not moved to legislate, let alone implement any of these schemes.
42. See Human Rights Watch, 'Neighbours in Need: Zimbabweans Seeking Refuge in South Africa' (2008).
43. Forced Migration Studies Programme, 'National survey of the refugee reception and status determination system in SouthAfrica'(2009), available at http://www.migration.org.za/report/national-survey-refugee-reception-and-status- determination-system-south-africa
44. See, for example 'Refugee Migrant Rights Project', available at http://www.lhr.org.za/programme/refugee-and-migrant-rights-project, retrieved on 8 December 2008.
45. Department of Home Affairs, 'Home Affairs Official Arrested' (2007), available at http://www.home-affairs.gov. za/media_releases.asp?id=496, retrieved on 7 December 2008
46. Department of Home Affairs, 'Home Affairs Officials Arrested', (2008), available at http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/media_releases.asp?id=496, retrieved on 7 December 2008
47. Department of Home Affairs, 'Officials Arrested for Fraud' (2008), available at http:// www.home-affairs.gov.za/media_releases.asp?id=458, retrieved on 7 December 2008.
48. Forced Migration Studies Programme, 'Barriers to Asylum: The Marabastad Refugee Reception Office' (2007), available at http://www.migration.org.za/report/barriers-asylum-marabastad-refugee-reception-office, retrieved on 15 September 2009.
49. 'Subject to this Act, a foreigner may change his or her status while in the Republic' (Immigration Act 2002: 10 (6), emphasis in original).
50. Interview with Administrative Clerk, Department of Home Affairs, Johannesburg, 9 June 2008.
51. Even the possession of a valid permit may not entail immunity. For example, drawing from a separate survey, 68.3% (n = 404) of detainees at Lindela, the centre where migrants are held pending deportation, claim to have been in possession of a permit saying they were allowed to be in South Africa when they were originally arrested. Almost half of those with such permits (47.0% n = 270) claim that their permits were valid at the time.
52. A separate survey on livelihoods in inner city suburbs found that at least one-third of residents were Zimbabwean (Berea: 33.8% (n = 305), Hillbrow: 38.9% (n = 437), Yeoville: 39.1% (n = 271)).
53. The same survey cited in footnote 39 above found that about one-fifth (20.3% (n = 1,022) of all residents living in the same area (including South Africans) did not possess valid documentation permitting them to reside in South Africa.
54. M. Madsen, 'Living for Home: Policing Immorality among Undocumented Migrants in Johannesburg', African Studies, 63 (2004), pp. 173-92.
55. In a separate survey, most detainees (59.6% (n = 401)) at the Lindela detention centre said that they were originally arrested by the police or by a group of officials including police officers. For a detailed explanation of these dynamics
56. see D. Vigneswaran, 'Enduring Territoriality: South African Immigration Control', Political Geography, 27 (2008), pp. 783-801.
57. See, for example City of Johannesburg, 'Johannesburg Inner City Regeneration Strategy' (2004).
58. Usually custody of suspected 'illegal foreigners' would be transferred directly to the DHA.
59. Interview with Superintendent Lategan, South African Police Services, Johannesburg, 8 April 2008.
60. S.K. Herbert, Policing Space: Territoriality and the Los Angeles Police Department (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1997).
61. L. Landau and T. Monson, 'Displacement, Estrangement And Sovereignty: Reconfiguring State Power in Urban South Africa', Government and Opposition, 43 (2008), pp. 315-66.