A/HRC/17/33/Add.4 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Jorge Bustamante, conducted an official visit to South Africa from 24 January to 1 February 2011, at the invitation of the Government. In Pretoria, Johannesburg, Musina and Cape Town, the Special Rapporteur met with Government ministers, Members of Parliament, officials of central and provincial governments, the United Nations country team, lawyers, academics and members of civil society organizations, as well as with migrants. He also visited the Lindela repatriation centre and the Beitbridge border facility, and met with migrant associations. 2. The Special Rapporteur expresses his gratitude to the Government for its cooperation, as well as to the various organizations that provided support for his mission, in particular the Regional Office for Southern Africa of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and South African civil society for their support for his mission. II. General background: the migration phenomenon in South Africa 3. In terms of numbers, internal migration is the most significant form of movement. Since the end of apartheid and the increased integration of the economy with its neighbours, international migration has also posed challenges to Government planning, service provision and social cohesion.1 Although the scale of migration and its impact vary, Gauteng Province receives the greatest number of migrants from other provinces, while the Eastern Cape loses the most people to other provinces. Despite its impressive dimensions, migration is often less important than other population dynamics. Between 2001 and 2007, for example, while 74 per cent of population growth in Gauteng was due to natural growth (the difference between the birth and death rate of people already living in the province), 26 per cent was due to migration; only 3 per cent of total growth was due to cross-border migration. Cross-border labour migration between South Africa and its neighbours dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, when the South African diamond and gold mining industries were founded and the country began to move towards a modern industrial economy. 4. A significant proportion of citizens from neighbouring States has migrated to South Africa, many to work. Cross-border migration has taken various forms. At one end of the spectrum is the highly regulated and formalized mine contract labour system; at the other, various kinds of informal or unregulated movements across borders. South Africa has received both kinds of migrants for decades. Commercial farmers also relied heavily on outside labour, much of it irregular. The recent crisis in Zimbabwe led to a new wave of movements to South Africa. Migration from Zimbabwe has been around three times greater than that from Mozambique during the civil war. This crisis of migration into South Africa is a direct product of the crisis in Zimbabwe. From 1994 to July 2008, South Africa 1 4 Population Movements in and to South Africa, Migration Fact Sheet 1, University of the Witwatersrand, Forced Migration Studies Programme, June 2010.