NATIONAL NEWS - At a hearing of the parliamentary committee on Tuesday morning, outgoing Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba, Ekhurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) briefed the departments of home affairs and cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) on issues surrounding illegal immigration and stemming the tide of xenophobic violence in South Africa.

Mashaba pleaded with parliament for help, calling the department of home affairs “dysfunctional” and unable to properly deal with the documentation of foreign nationals.

He sold his parliamentary intervention as an alternative to legal action: “I don’t think it is proper in terms of intergovernmental relations to take the department of home affairs to court.”

Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi heard Mashaba out, telling parliament he tried his “level best” to try and understand what Mashaba wanted. He said he had always been happy to cooperate with Mashaba’s government.

According to Motsoaledi, Mashaba accosted him during a funeral in July to “bitterly” complain about how those who occupied the ministry of home affairs in the past didn’t do enough about illegal immigration.

He called Mashaba’s comments on his department “emotional” and said he would be prepared to meet with the Joburg mayor, criticising him for “running to parliament” instead of speaking to him first.

Masina, meanwhile, called Mashaba’s accusations against the department “unfortunate”.

Mashaba presented a proposal on the challenges he said he inherited as mayor and on the City of Johannesburg’s “Migrant Sub-Unit".

Read more on the Caxton publication, The Citizen