DA spokesperson on home affairs, Juanita Terblanche, said in a statement that she was astonished the minister could not see the link between "the disastrous combination of uncontrolled immigrants streaming through South African borders and her department being riddled with under-staffing and incompetence".

Terblanche said the DA had warned Dlamini-Zuma in June 2009 already that the 90-day visa waiver policy with regards to Zimbabwe was likely to cause problems.

"While the DA did not, in principle, oppose either the 90-day visa-waiver policy or the relaxation of immigration laws on those Zimbabweans already here, we have cautioned on several occasions, that with the current state of the department of home affairs this could have disastrous consequences on many facets of life for South Africans as well as that of immigrants."

Terblanche slammed the minister turning to Cosatu for solutions to regulate the movement of people over South African borders.

She said Dlamini-Zuma should deal with the staff shortages in her department, while staff should be properly trained and managed.

"The minister must also take steps to root out corruption in her department and corruption charges against officials must be brought to finality as swiftly as possible.

"These matters however are not progressing as proposed."

Terblanche said a more efficient home affairs department was the solution to the current problems.

By IOL