Yesterday, ActionSA’s Parliamentary Chief Whip, Lerato Ngobeni MP, wrote to Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, urging him to reject the citizenship application of Mr Phil Craig, a British national and permanent resident of South Africa. In hindsight, Ms Ngobeni’s call was quite generous and did not go far enough. She should have urged the Minister to revoke Craig’s permanent residence as well.
For those unfamiliar with this individual, Craig is the leader of the Western Cape Province (of South Africa) secession movement, known as the Cape Independence Advocacy Group.
In her letter on behalf of ActionSA, Ngobeni cited the South African Citizenship Act of 1995, which grants the Minister discretionary powers under Section 5 to approve or reject a foreigner’s citizenship application on various grounds. Section (1)(d) of the Citizenship Act requires that a citizenship applicant be a person of good character, and Section (1)(e) states that the citizenship applicant must intend to reside in the Republic, which we know is indivisible.
We ask, how does Mr Craig intend to reside in the Republic of South Africa while he calls for it to be split? Assuming that his real intention is to eventually reside in an imagined, future Republic of The Western Cape, perhaps that is where he should wait to apply for citizenship, and not in our Republic of South Africa, whose physical integrity he clearly has no intention to respect and protect?
Fellow South Africans, you will agree with me that our country has its own myriads of challenges, some of which end-up fuelling seemingly intractable inter-group disputes on a basket of historically inherited differences. We have enough on our plate, as a diverse nation, but none of the challenges we face are insurmountable. I believe that together, we shall eventually find solutions.
We do not need outsiders, irrespective of where they originate, to come to our country, benefit from the generosity of our hospitality, then see it fit to turn into instigators of divisive secessionist agendas that we all know will worsen the state of our social cohesion and lead to unnecessary bloodshed. Nowhere in the world has secessionist agendas happened peacefully, certainly not in Africa.
Please join us and amplify our call for the Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber, to revoke Phil Graig’s permanent residency of our country and to decline his application for citizenship on the grounds, at least, that he has no intention to respect and protect the physical integrity of our country.
We might have our internal differences, but we always unite when we face threats from outside. We cannot afford to sit by and watch outsiders coming here to exploit our differences for treasonous intents.
Phil Craig must go!
Foreigners Establishing a Home in South Africa Must Respect Our Country or Leave
Yesterday, ActionSA’s Parliamentary Chief Whip, Lerato Ngobeni MP, wrote to Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, urging him to reject the citizenship application of Mr Phil Craig, a British national and permanent resident of South Africa. In hindsight, Ms Ngobeni’s call was quite generous and did not go far enough. She should have urged the Minister to revoke Craig’s permanent residence as well.
For those unfamiliar with this individual, Craig is the leader of the Western Cape Province (of South Africa) secession movement, known as the Cape Independence Advocacy Group.
In her letter on behalf of ActionSA, Ngobeni cited the South African Citizenship Act of 1995, which grants the Minister discretionary powers under Section 5 to approve or reject a foreigner’s citizenship application on various grounds. Section (1)(d) of the Citizenship Act requires that a citizenship applicant be a person of good character, and Section (1)(e) states that the citizenship applicant must intend to reside in the Republic, which we know is indivisible.
We ask, how does Mr Craig intend to reside in the Republic of South Africa while he calls for it to be split? Assuming that his real intention is to eventually reside in an imagined, future Republic of The Western Cape, perhaps that is where he should wait to apply for citizenship, and not in our Republic of South Africa, whose physical integrity he clearly has no intention to respect and protect?
Fellow South Africans, you will agree with me that our country has its own myriads of challenges, some of which end-up fuelling seemingly intractable inter-group disputes on a basket of historically inherited differences. We have enough on our plate, as a diverse nation, but none of the challenges we face are insurmountable. I believe that together, we shall eventually find solutions.
We do not need outsiders, irrespective of where they originate, to come to our country, benefit from the generosity of our hospitality, then see it fit to turn into instigators of divisive secessionist agendas that we all know will worsen the state of our social cohesion and lead to unnecessary bloodshed. Nowhere in the world has secessionist agendas happened peacefully, certainly not in Africa.
Please join us and amplify our call for the Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber, to revoke Phil Graig’s permanent residency of our country and to decline his application for citizenship on the grounds, at least, that he has no intention to respect and protect the physical integrity of our country.
We might have our internal differences, but we always unite when we face threats from outside. We cannot afford to sit by and watch outsiders coming here to exploit our differences for treasonous intents.
Phil Craig must go!