Fixing it never broke it

Those of you that make regular trips out of SA will know that on every flight out, the cabin crew walk around spraying insecticide before the plane takes off. Just as a precaution you understand. When I undertook the magnificent leap to the great unknown in August 2006, bound for Heathrow, it came as a huge surprise to witness this. It made me feel dirty. What the hell? did I have fleas, mites or what?

The world does not trust SA. This was amply confirmed in the recent announcement that the UK no longer allows SAns to enter the UK without a visa. This was due to fraudulently issued passports to illegal immigrants. Whoever, or whatever (Al Queda etc) was entering the UK could obtain a visa-less SA passport at a price. It represented an intolerable security breach to the UK who put their foot down.

Of course, this has created a huge embarrassment for the Department of Home Affirs, oops Affairs. And the intelligentsia of said department are even now busy beavering away to rectify the situation. They want to "fix" this situation. But if you think about it carefully, it was never broken in the first place (Think Eskom, think SABC)

SA looking to resolve passport issues

South Africa needs to resolve valid issues raised by the United Kingdom about passport fraud before Pretoria asks for visa requirements to be lifted, Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said today. "Our priority at this point in time is to fix things," she told a media briefing at Parliament, following debate on her department’s budget vote in the National Assembly.

"The UK did what it did because there were problems, and there is no point in going back to the UK until we fix the problems. "We will then go back to them and hopefully they will reverse it," she said.

Britain’s Foreign Office in February introduced visa requirements for South Africans for the first time.

Britain’s official reason was the need to strengthen its borders, but media reports cited UK government concern that fundamentalists and criminals were using readily available stolen or forged South African passports to enter the UK.

Pretoria at the time conceded there were "some problems" with its identity document authorisation systems. Speaking during the debate, Dlamini-Zuma promised her department would embark on a major drive to stop identity and travel document fraud, and fire officials who co-operated with forgers.