City of Cape Town employees receive training as immigration officers
To tackle the lengthy queues at the airport, the mayor of Cape Town plans to have city staff trained as immigration officials.
Staff members of the City of Cape Town will be trained as immigration officers to help reduce long lines at the passport control gate of Cape Town International Airport.
City of Cape Town to pay instead of DHA
Typically, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) appoints and pays immigration officials. However, the mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, stated at a conference that the City of Cape Town will be paying the training of municipal staff members to become immigration officials. This follows a discussion between Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber and Mayor Hill-Lewis, as reported by capetownetc.
Hill-Lewis at the EWC conference
The Mayor delivered the keynote address at the Exporters Western Cape (EWC) conference at the end of last month . He mostly spoke about the broad scope of changes and initiatives he is undertaking. However, he also pointed out that exporting and the status of the Cape Town harbour are top priorities on his list.
The EWC stated that Hill-Lewis was ‘truly transparent’ and ‘explained the positive initiatives and changes we can continue to expect in the coming years under his leadership guidance’.
Some of these initiatives include the importance of keeping up infrastructure investment and combating crime rates. The Mayor wants to ensure that the police force gets extra training and is used more effectively through technology.
“We were incredibly honoured to have our City of Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, deliver the keynote address.”
EWC
Mayor writes to all ministers with list of demands
Hill-Lewis wrote to all the ministers, sending them a long memo of what Cape Town wants and expects from them. He said that Cape Town has ‘been asking for this stuff for years’. He added that the ministers ‘had better deliver now that they have the chance’.
The Mayor scheduled a meeting with the Minister of Home Affairs within 48 hours of sending the memo. They met within 72 hours.
In a previous meeting with the DHA, he was unsuccessful in convincing the DHA to prioritise the City of Cape Town’s demands. This time round, it seems that the DHA heard his pleas. He proposed that Schreiber uses his influence as Home Affairs Minister to appoint City of Cape Town staff as immigration officials at the Cape Town Airport passport control gates.
Hill-Lewis stated that when multiple international flights arrive at the same time, it can take two to three hours to get through passport control.