PRETORIA - President Cyril Ramaphosa has outlined a five-point plan to tackle illegal immigration.
It includes rooting out corruption in the immigration system and working closely with neighbouring countries.
In his address to the nation on Sunday, Ramaphosa also detailed plans to strengthen law enforcement measures.
"The first part of our response is a concerted crackdown on violations of existing immigration labour and other laws. The Department of Home Affairs, the Border Management Authority, the South African Police Service and other law enforcement agencies have been and will intensify the process of identifying and deporting undocumented foreign nationals residing illegally in South Africa," Ramaphosa said.
In the past year alone, Ramaphosa said the Border Management Authority has managed to intercept and stop over 450,000 people who were attempting to enter South Africa illegally.
"We will set up dedicated courts to deal with immigration, to speedily support the deportation of undocumented migrants."
Ramaphosa said while illegal immigration was an issue of global concern, it was not the cause of economic hardship.
"We must recognise that illegal immigration is not the cause of all our economic challenges. There are other causes. The answer must be faster, economic growth, greater investment, industrial expansion, infrastructure development and the creation of millions of new jobs.
"These are precisely the issues that our government is working on. We know that immigration is a global issue. It affects many countries around the world. Our country, like many others throughout history, is a product of migration. It is the reason for our diversity and contributes to our vibrancy, the president said.
Meanwhile, March and March, a citizen-led movement advocating for stronger immigration enforcement, said it was not happy with the president's plan. The group described Ramaphosa's plan as "largely impractical".
The group also accuses Ramaphosa of trying to blame certain groups for the violence.
"I think the president spent more time trying to make this seem like a political issue and that people or certain groups or certain tribes are looking for political gain or are trying to divide the nation instead of dealing with the actual problem and giving us actual practical solutions to the problem. From the the interventions that he's spoken about I can safely say that 80% of them are impractical," said Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, March and March leader.