New Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba appears to have been deployed to oversee a complete overhaul of South Africa’s immigration laws that go much deeper than the amendments of immigration regulations that are raising a fuss.

In an interview with The New Age, Gigaba said the world together with immigration patterns had changed which left South Africa’s regulations with dangerous holes that needed to be closed in the areas of security and the economy.

“One of the things that we are going to take forward from the previous administration is to undertake a complete review of South Africa’s immigration policy and legislation and try and close some gaps,” the minister said. He said the current policies did not adequately deal with new dynamics like economic migrants.

He said the country had seen an increased number of economic migrants from all over the SADC region and other parts of the world.

“Workers from other countries and I dare say Zimbabwe have flocked to South Africa seeking asylum. We must ask: Is there a conflict in Zimbabwe which necessitates that Zimbabwean nationals must apply for asylum in South Africa?”

He said issuing asylum to some nationals can cause diplomatic difficulties for South Africa because it amounts to passing a judgment against the political status of another country.

Gigaba cited the case of a South African who applied for political asylum in Canada claiming that he was persecuted as a white person. “Remember that we kicked up a storm on the issue. Therefore we can’t be found doing the same thing.”

The minister is already walking into a storm over new immigration regulations which kicked in this week. Some stakeholders and mainly organs representing business interests are seeing red and threatening legal action. The new regulations are also shaking explosive political areas like accommodation of immigrants from troubled spots across the African continent.

Gigaba stuck to his guns, saying the department was going ahead with implementation but the door was not shut for dialogue.

The minister said the new regulations were primarily designed to address security and the economy. “The philosophy that underpins our migration services is management,” Gigaba said.

“We don’t view immigration as a nuisance that must be combated. We look at immigration as a service to be managed in order to enhance national security and facilitate economic development.” He dismissed suggestions this area was directly linked to concerns South Africa may become a terrorist haven.

Gigaba said: “I will in the next few weeks announce how we are going to deal with the Zimbabweans dispensation.”