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It is a great pleasure for me to share this evening with friends and colleagues. The end of a year is a time in which it is important to draw balances of what has happened and lay down plans for the future. The Immigration Advisory Board has been in existence for less than seven months, and yet, it is not inappropriate on this occasion to draw the preliminary balance of its activities and look forward to what can be reasonably expected of its performance. Just a few days ago we held a ceremony in the Department of Home Affairs, to mark the fact that Mr Lambinon is no longer in the civil service and has resigned his position of Deputy Director-General, and to celebrate his many decades of loyal, professional and competent service with the Department. On that occasion, I took the opportunity to make a few remarks about the performance of the Immigration Advisory Board as they reflected on the activities of its Pro-Tempore Chairman, Mr Lambinon himself. I had the pleasure of stating then that in my more than thirty years in Government, I have dealt with a number of statutory bodies, boards, commissions and public entities of all types and sorts, but I have never seen any of them produce as much quality work as I have seen the Immigration Advisory Board doing during the past seven months.

On an occasion like this it is proper and fitting for any Minister to congratulate members of a Board over which the Minister has a supervisory responsibility. However, my congratulations to you are neither a matter of routine nor a perfunctory exercise. It is well deserved and also expresses my candid pleasant surprise that this Board is indeed functioning as well as it has, and has produced as much quality work in such a short time-frame. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, not only because what you have done is immensely beneficial to the line function of migration control in our Republic, but also because it sets a very hopeful precedent and example for many other institutions of Government to follow.

However, the downside of your own performance is that by virtue of what you have achieved in the past seven months, you have given me a dimension of what you could be producing during the next year, and have somehow benchmarked your own performance standards for the next year and what is reasonable for all of us to expect from this Board.

I know that many people think I have the reputation of somebody who drives anyone who works with me very hard. I know that Mr Lambinon also has a similar reputation of somebody who does not like things to move forward but he wants them to run forward at a very fast pace and without breaks, as a marathon runner would do, which is no surprise because he is a seasoned professional runner of marathons. However, I know that you are all extraordinary people who recognise the value of productivity and work, and none of you have chosen to sit on this Board merely to hold an additional position. I did mention it when inaugurating the Board, that what I was offering to all of you was not just a position but, indeed, a job, which involved lots of work. On that basis I made a promise and received one from each of you and I am pleased in verifying that that promise has been so brilliantly and generously fulfilled on your side.

For this reason, I felt that I need to continue to fulfil my own side of that promise and ensure that the activities of this Board may grow to perform an ever greater role which underscores the critical importance of migration control in shaping the destiny of our country, and the new dimensions of the world in which we live in the age of globalisation. For this reason, as you know, I have instructed the Board to perform two important pieces of research which are of great innovation, not only for our Government but, indeed, when assessed on a global basis. The first research project that you are now engaged in conducting is that on xenophobia. The second research project is the one which should give us the basic and analytical information within which to contextualise the debate and policy formulation relating to the free circulation of people within the Southern African development community. Both these projects will require the development and establishment of a type of methodology, which will indeed provide conceptual background to a new emerging discipline of migration control. For this reason, I will appreciate it if in running these two separate exercises this Board could consider the need and opportunity of having an outward looking approach, reaching out for the experience and reflections of other significant countries.

I have often reflected on the fact that by definition migration control is an international matter, which involves dealings with other countries, and yet is one of those which traditionally has been handled by States in the most inward looking fashion and as if it were an exclusively domestic concern. We must change this perception. For instance, I am surprised by the fact that international fora exist to co-ordinate actions, information and policies amongst governments in many fields, which have international repercussions and implications. For instance, there are fora to deal with international criminal phenomena like Interpol. There are many fora dealing with environmental matters, which are by definition trans-national. There are international fora to co-ordinate health policies, defence matters and many other government responsibilities.

However, I am not aware of a single international forum in which policy entities within Government can meet to discuss and co-ordinate policy issues and perspectives relating to migration control. In the past almost ten years that I have been Minister of Home Affairs, I have attended a number of private conferences organised by NGO's, often accompanied by Mr Lambinon, which have tried to supplement on this deficiency. However, they cannot replace a structured venue where discussions of this nature can take place. A number of initiatives have developed at the ministerial levels with ad hoc conferences called by Ministers of Home Affairs, like the one we held at the initiative of the Minister of Immigration in the Netherlands or the one held in Bali organised by the Governments of Australia and Indonesia on the specific issues of trafficking in people and the smuggling of people.

We know that the International Organisation for Migration has not performed and, most likely, cannot perform the role of enabling key policy makers from significant countries to discuss and elaborate policy perspectives on migration control in a structured, continuous and effective manner. I am sharing this reflection because I felt that in the long-term the type of exercises that our Board is now undertaking, should lead to greater co-operation, possibly an international conference and finally, to the creation in conjunction with other countries, to have a venue which can bring together boards, institutions and policy makers which in other countries are dealing with the same issues which we confronted, when we shaped our reform of migration control, and those issues which we are now engaging as we tackle questions such as xenophobia and the free circulation of people. There are other more fundamental questions which other countries have dealt with and which we are still not able to confront and might come onto our agenda only in years to come, such as the issue of developing programmes for relocation and acclimatisation of foreigners within our context, as well as the need of developing effective programmes to secure our borders and provide effective law enforcement within our country. These are long-term perspectives, which are not going to labour the efforts, which we will need to undertake next year but which could, nonetheless, provide a valuable perspective of vision to better understand our overall mission.

For this reason, I feel that it is important that the Board develops its own sense of self, its mission and an understanding of its purpose in the broader context of policy formulation in South Africa and in the world in which South Africa now belongs. For this reason, it is essential that the Board maintain a dialectic position with the rest of Government. Government is heavily represented within the Board and there is no doubt that the perspective of Government departments is fully included, represented and ever-present in anything that the Board does. However, I feel that the challenge, which the Board must accept, is that of having what I would like to call an almost transcendental attitude, if I can borrow the well-known expression coined by Emanuel Kant. It must be itself and yet transcend and rise above and beyond that which defines its present self to act within the tension of operating in much broader horizons. Only in this fashion will the Board be able to exercise a leadership role in assisting Government to develop future policies, understand present problems and prepare for future challenges. Otherwise, the Board will merely be a duplication of that which already exists within Government and will not have the capacity of adding value as we all expect from it.

For this reason, it is important that the Board develops its own resource capacity as Professor Wilmot James originally indicated should be the intention of the Board to do. Its own research capacity does not need to be of its own employees and can undoubtedly rely on contractors and partnerships in the capacity of raising money for projects from donors and sources both within South Africa and internationally. For instance, I am very pleased that when I discussed with the Konrad Adenhauer Foundation that this Board is engaging in a research on the free circulation of people, their representative indicated the great interest the Foundation has in participating in such challenging and intellectually stimulating efforts. Needless to say that such Foundation carries the legacy of one of the greatest founders of the European dream which was based on the free circulation of people, Chancellor Konrad Adenhauer, and therefore will be uniquely qualified to provide a unique input into your activities, both financially as well as logistically and intellectually.

The Board should also draw from existing capacity for research and analysis within departments, especially the Department of Home Affairs, however, without being limited by it. If the Board is limited by existing capacity within the Department of Home Affairs, or any other Department, it will fail to rise to the transcendental challenge which I referred to earlier.

Next year, the most immediate challenge confronting the Board will be that of reviewing the implementation of the Immigration Act, as soon as the new Regulations will be issued. You need to ensure that this process is conducted in close co-operation with my Department, so that the process of implementing the new Regulations can be smooth and any initial difficulty can be ironed out without creating additional problems. However, special emphasis must be made to bring about the completion of the two fundamental aspects of the Immigration Act, which have still not been implemented, and, without which, we all know the system will not work and is bound to fail. The first of such aspects is the establishment of the Immigration Corps. We have not yet felt the full brunt of the human rights protections we have placed in the Immigration Act and the requirement of utilising warrants in most cases in which the law is enforced. However, as soon as there is greater awareness of the many guarantees built in the Immigration Act, ranging from the procedures of appeal set out in Section 8 to the requirements for a court warrant in many respects, without the Immigration Corps the entire procedure of law enforcement and the administration of the Act may reach a grinding halt. This matter has been neglected for too long and it can no longer be delayed. It must now be placed on an override mode to ensure that it can move at a much faster pace.

The other matter which is of great concern to me is the need of establishing the Inspectorate provided in the Immigration Act. We need to begin patrolling our borders and securing them so that they will stop being as porous as they now are. We must also begin enforcing migration laws within our communities, beginning from workplaces. The issue of security is becoming increasingly more relevant and must accompany the implementation of an act, which has made it extremely more liberal to visit and reside in South Africa. Without greater security in terms of border control, enforcement and inspections, what we have brought about by means of the Immigration Act could be disastrous. I am pleased that we have secured a programme of co-operation with the United States of America, which will be sending to us one or more of its experts, which are now working on similar issues as they are now performing in their Department of Homeland Security. These experts will spend in excess of six months with our Department to try to develop ideas for a general blueprint for border control and law enforcement for the next fifteen years, taking into account the specific context of our Country and the many budgetary, logistical and capacity limitations which characterise it. At the end of this week, my own Advisor will be visiting the States at the request of the United States Embassy and on my instruction to brief those who are selecting the experts to ensure that those who are selected understand our context and can operate in it in a manner, which can really add value to our efforts. I have also been advised that the International Organisation for Migration has made means available for a Canadian official to join in this effort as we re-organise my Department.

I am highlighting these challenges for the future in this venue because that it is appropriate that the Board will become increasingly more involved in shaping policy matters and long-term visions. I feel that the relationship between my Department and the Board is one in which greater empathy should be placed on what the Board can do in promoting information, debate and guidance in developing policy issues and long-term perspectives and monitoring the underlying assumptions on which policy making relies. However, I must also express the concern that I feel is important that the Board makes the maximum effort possible to become as familiar as possible with the actual line function responsibilities of my Department and how matters are actually conducted on a day to day basis, so as to avoid that its recommendations and perspectives may be tainted by a theoretic or remote approach. The Board should not have a bias, which is inimical to the line functions concerned and should develop its perspective within the line functional perspective, to then transcend it into something better and broader, which arises out of it along the same lines of the transcendental approach, which I suggested earlier.

I am aware that I have taken with my speech precious time, which could be dedicated to eating, drinking and being merry. However, I felt that it was necessary for me to take this opportunity to engage the Board on some matters of substance. I received the Board's Minutes, recommendations and work outlook, but have not had the opportunity to provide the Board with my own reactions or engage it in a dialogue about its future. Next year is going to be an extremely busy one because of the impending elections and I hope that my friends and colleagues will forgive me for having taken so much of our eating and drinking time for this serious discussion. However, I feel that even this occasion somehow marks how special this Board really is because of its commitment to work and its tangible results. In conclusion, I just want to re-state my words of appreciation for the work done and those of great confidence in the capacity of this Board in embracing even greater challenges and delivering towards a successful completion.

I hope that the forthcoming holiday season may bring to all of you very well deserved serenity and bless your families and friends with the joy, merriment and hope of this blessed time.

I thank you.

Source: Department of Home Affairs (http://home-affairs.pwv.gov.za)