Bid to stop marriage scam
2004-08-11 15:56
Cape Town - The South African permanent residence permit should be issued to foreigners who have been married to locals for at least five years, parliament's home affairs portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.
Committee chairperson Patrick Chauke said the move was to prevent the high levels of fraudulent marriages by foreigners who simply wanted to stay in the country, and the high divorce rate.
Out of 50 000 newly married couples, more than 75% of them got divorced in a period of one year, he said after the committee meeting.
"With the new legislation, we are beginning to try to prevent that."
Chauke said the committee would review the Marriages Act for it to be in line with the proposal in the Immigration Amendment Bill.
As the act currently stands, a foreigner can get a permanent residence permit immediately after marrying a South African citizen.
This has led to the massive abuse of the system, with some foreigners fraudulently getting married to South Africans simply to get the permit.
The government has now embarked on a process of checking the marriage status of South Africans to identify, and correct false marriages.
The 2002 Immigration Act states that "the holder of a permanent residence permit has all the rights, privileges, duties and obligations of a citizen".
- SAPA