An unannounced visit by a South African parliamentary committee to Cape Town's refugee centre last week found foreign nationals being treated like "animals" by officials responsible for running the centre.

Although South Africa's Department of Home Affairs, whose duties include processing refugee applications, is routinely criticised for its treatment of foreign nationals, the aftermath of the parliamentarians' visit to the refugee centre has sparked a political furore, because Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had shied away twice from meeting the parliamentary commmittee to explain the "deplorable state" of her department.

The minister's failure to address the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee is shadowed by a suspended corruption investigation of the department's deputy minister, Malusi Gigaba, by the public protector's office.

The public protector, which receives and investigates complaints from the public against government agencies or officials, and can recommend corrective action, is appointed by the president but is independent of government and subject only to the constitution and the law.

There was a complete absence of home affairs officials during the parliamentary committee's visit to Cape Town's refugee centre on the Foreshore, when members found an asylum seeker in a cage inside an ablution block and released the person.

The portfolio committee also discovered the presence of "syndicates". Committee chairman Patrick Chauke said the syndicates appeared to have complete access to official documentation and the use of the department's computers at the centre.

A migration expert, who declined to be named, said the syndicates were allegedly operated by home affairs translators, who negotiate bribes between asylum seekers and home affairs officials for documentation.

According to reports, when office manager Nomsa Mzamane was asked by Chauke why there were no home affairs officials at their posts, she said they had run away when they heard the parliamentarians were on the premises.

Refugees treated like animals

Chauke told the media that during their visit they had found "inhumane treatment of refugees by the department's officials ... [and] a very chaotic situation [where] refugees are treated like animals."

Zimbabwean asylum seekers protesting outside the refugee centre a few days earlier had been dispersed by the police, prompting the committee's visit. Protest leader Braam Hanekom said the group wanted to highlight the problems at the centre. "The majority of the refugees have been battling to get documents for more than 10 years, and this is despite the fact that they are genuine asylum seekers escaping from persecution back home."

Christina Henda, director of the Cape Town Refugee Centre, a non-governmental organisation assisting refugees and asylum seekers, told IRIN that "every day they have complaints from their clients" about the home affairs refugee centre and the "negative attitude" to asylum seekers.

She told IRIN that their clients, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and Angola, alleged that home affairs officials request bribes for documentation.

The conditions at Cape Town's refugee centre appear to mirror those experienced by asylum seekers in Pretoria, where hundreds of undocumented migrants queue for weeks and even months outside the Home Affairs Department's office in Marabastad in the hope of obtaining some form of legal status in South Africa.

Political fallout

Minister Mapisa-Nqakula's failure to meet with the portfolio committee, which has the power to summon anyone before it, has caused widespread anger among opposition political parties, and has also annoyed portfolio committee chairman Chauke, a member of the ruling ANC party.

Steve Swart, the African Christian Democratic Party spokesman on home affairs, said in a statement that "We are all aware of the deplorable state of the Department of Home Affairs. A full briefing on the implementation of the turnaround strategy and the suspensions of senior managers, including the Chief Financial Officer, is way overdue."

Home affairs announced on 10 September that the chief financial officer and the deputy director-general of civic services had been suspended with immediate effect pending further investigations into their conduct, but declined to elaborate further.

The parliamentary committee has reportedly told the minister that she should make an appointment to appear before it, and this should be done before the end of October.

Early in September, home affairs new director-general Mavuso Msimang conceded after his first 100 days in office that his department was "sick", and dogged by corruption, a lack of skills and oversight, all of which contributed to poor customer service. Msimang, known as "Mr Fix-it" in government circles, has pledged to reduce the average 100-day wait for identity documents and shrink the waiting list of 600,000 people.

Amanda Nxumalo, of the Home Affairs Refugee Backlog Project, refused to disclose to IRIN the total backlog of refugee applications and said in a statement: "Unfortunately the statistics of the current backlog are a sensitive issue at the moment and cannot be disclosed to the general public for security reasons."

However, according to a home affairs document obtained by IRIN, about 150,000 applications for asylum were made between 1994 and 2004, of which 26,900 were granted refugee status.

In 2006 there were an "estimated total of 53,363" asylum claims, the highest ever annual number made in South Africa. Men comprised 78 percent of the claims (41,437), women 20 percent (10,769) and children 2 percent (1,155).

According to the document, about 5,342 initial decisions were made on asylum claims in 2006, although it can take five years or even longer for asylum claims to be adjudicated.

Of the 111,157 outstanding claims in the backlog project at the beginning of 2006, 29,325 were finalised, leaving a balance of 81,832 people with the status of asylum seekers awaiting a decision on the granting of refugee status. The Refugee Backlog Project has offices in Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Johannesburg.