Department of Home Affairs Strategic Plan and Budget 2010-2011

Meeting report

Department of Home Affairs (DHA) Strategic Plan and budget, 2010-2011
Mr Mavuso Msimang, Director General, Department of Home Affairs, briefed the Committee on the vision, mission and values of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA or the Department). The DHA strove to create a safe, secure South Africa, of which all its people were proud, and where they valued their identity and citizenship. The DHA was committed to being people-centred and caring, patriotic, corruption-free and ethical, efficient and innovative.

The DHA was the custodian, protector and verifier of the identity and status of citizens and other persons resident in South Africa as recorded on the National Population Register. The DHA also controlled, regulated and facilitated immigration and the traffic of people through ports of entry. The central role of the DHA in society was to ensure the security of the State.

The presentation included an overview of the progress the DHA had made during the 2009-2010 period as well as the challenges it faced in executing its functions (see document for full details). The main area of progress lay in improvements in the different measures and technologies to prevent identity document, birth certificate and passport fraud. Another area was the Advanced Passenger Processing, piloted during the Confederations Cup, and being implemented for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. The main challenge remained to ensure that all South Africans were issued birth certificates before their first birthday, and applied for identity documents when they turned sixteen.

The DHA was working towards three national outcomes. In the first instance it was aiming for a secured South African citizenship and identity. Secondly, it was aiming to manage immigration effectively and securely in the national interest. Thirdly, it was aiming to become a service that was efficient, accessible and free from corruption.

Mr Mkhuseli Apleni, Chief Financial Officer, DHA, presented the Financial Report (see attached document).

Discussion
Mr J McGluwa (ID) congratulated Mr Msimang and Mr Apleni on their presentation. He expressed his disappointment about the fact that there was no budget allocation for the Smart ID Card in the 2010/11, 2011/12 or 2012/13 financial years at this stage. In his opinion that was the only solution that could save the country from the rampant corruption around ID documents. The Smart Card ID Document had been in the planning phase for a long time. This was a cause of great concern for his party.

Mr M Mnqasela (DA) also felt that it was a bad idea to delay the Smart ID Card. He asked when it would be back on the agenda.

Mr Msimang replied that the situation around the Smart ID Card was unfortunate. It was desirable to have Smart ID Cards, because the level of security that could be maintained was much higher and these could contain more information than the current green ID book. The Smart ID Card project had been in the pipeline for a long time, but due to poor planning and co-ordination it had not materialised. The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) had a problem managing the initial tendering process. Someone from within the entity that won the tender wrote a letter anonymously, expressing concern about a conflict of interest. SITA deemed it serious enough to halt the process at that point. The money earmarked for the project was not used within that financial year. National Treasury (NT) lost trust in the process, and did not give permission for that money to stay in the possession of the Department in the form of a rollover. The leadership of SITA, despite National Treasury’s loss of faith, was still in place. Legislation dictated that the Smart ID Card had to be done through SITA. National NT had its own Procurement Board. NT indicated that it wanted to be associated with a future tendering process.

At the present stage, the Department was not able to access funds for the implementation of the Smart ID Card. The Department had made a second request to NT for the money to be rolled over. The Department needed to put together a clearly thought–out tender document. The Minister would have to give input on how this process should proceed. There were other government departments that wanted the Smart ID Card to be implemented as well, for example Department of Social Development, to facilitate security around social grants. This had an implication on the resources that were required from NT. There was therefore a need for NT to plan carefully in order to overcome the reasons for the delays in the past. The R104 million initially earmarked was only for a pilot project. The cost over several years would be much higher.

Mr J McGluwa asked what effect the amendment to the Immigration Act, referred to in the presentation, would have.

Ms Z Balindlela (COPE) also asked Mr Msimang to elaborate on this point.

Mr Jacky McKay, Deputy Director General: Immigration Services, DHA, replied that the amendment to the Immigration Act would have no bearing on the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, because it would only be brought before Parliament during the latter part of 2010.

He noted that the refugee legislation had been through an amendment process in 2008. Technical errors were made, in the references used, at that time. Those errors would be corrected in the latest amendment to the Act.

He noted that the Minister of Home Affairs had raised the issue of the adjudication of asylum claims. Currently, junior officers, who were not equal to the task, were making judgments on whether the asylum seekers had strong cases or not. This situation was vulnerable to corruption. A panel of suitably-qualified people should be making that decision. The situation would have to be investigated from a policy point of view, to see whether the Act also dealt with specific challenges, for example, a more controlled or managed integration of refugees into society.

Mr McKay said that the immigration legislation was fraught with loopholes and problems. A number of so-called “asylum seekers” did not properly fall into this category, but were rather economic migrants, looking for work. They were clogging up the refugee and asylum system. There should be a process to filter the economic migrants out of the refugee and asylum system.

The permit system should also be scrutinised. There were many different kinds of permits. The question was whether the system was working properly, or whether the system should not rather be points-based. In this manner the people who would add economic and cultural value to the country would be allowed in. Currently, people came into the country on a visitor’s permit. When they were inside the country they changed their status from visitor to resident. The law needed to be changed, so that foreign nationals could only apply for a residence permit from inside their country of origin.

The Immigration Act had a section called the Advanced Passenger Processing System. It now made provision for passengers to be returned to their country of origin. In the past South Africa carried the full cost of repatriation. The new version of the Act would make it possible for South Africa to recoup some of these expenses.

Mr McGluwa asked how the Department of Home Affairs planned to empower women at levels 9-12 in the workplace, in terms of its Strategic Plan.

Ms Balindlela said that 2011 was set aside as the year of the Centenary Celebration of Women’s Rights. She asked whether the Department was planning anything in this regard on its own, or in partnership with other departments.

Ms Avril Williamson, Deputy Director General: Human Resources, DHA, replied that gender equity was a priority within the Department. The Department as a whole was predominantly female-staffed. At the higher managerial levels, the Department was admittedly not quite where it should be in terms of gender equity, but there was a concerted effort to rectify the situation. During the last quarter, four females were appointed to Chief Director-level posts The Directorate was putting together a gender equity calendar.

Ms T Gasebonwe (ANC) asked how the process of online birth and death registration would work and how long it would take.

Mr Vusi Mkhize, Deputy Director General: Civic Services, DHA, replied that birth registrations could happen in hospitals that were registered with the DHA and had the infrastructure to do so. There was an incremental approach, in the sense that more hospitals were being registered and equipped to do it.

Ms P Maduna (ANC) referred to the campaign to clear backlogs in the Late Registration of Births (LRB). She asked whether the campaign would cover all the provinces.

Ms Balindlela asked whether municipalities would be involved in the campaigns to register children on the National Population Register.

Ms M Maunye (ANC) agreed that, in regard to the LRB, there should, in theory, be a cutoff date, but in practice it was difficult to implement. There were many children who were abandoned by their parents and were being raised by their grandparents, who had no documentation for them. A cutoff date would exclude these grandparents from registering the children, with the result that they would not be able, for instance, to access child grants.

Mr Mkhize replied that the LRB campaign was budgeted for. It included all provinces, with special emphasis on KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. DHA was collaborating with Department of Social Development, South African Social Security Agency, and the Department of Human Settlements. Database exchanges were possible if the need arose.

He said that there was a mindset change needed in the country around the issue of birth registration. With late registrations of births, a number of issues became important. Although there should be a cutoff date, the Department could not deprive people of their fundamental right of their citizenship. He thought that for the time being, LRB should still be allowed. After an agreed period of time, the controls should be tightened. It should become significantly more difficult to register a birth late, and the case should be subjected to intense scrutiny. Throughout all these processes, however, the clientele should be treated with dignity. DHA Contact Centres would ensure that the clientele had a vehicle for recourse and redress, if they felt that they had been treated unfairly.

Ms J Terblanche (DA) asked who was driving the process to establish the Border Management Agency (BMA). She visited border posts and it was apparent to her that the borders were not managed properly.

Ms Maunye asked which other Government Departments would be involved in the Border Management Agency.

Mr Msimang replied that the National Intelligence Coordination Committee had a leading role in the establishment of the BMA. The BMA would establish specialised units, in which all the departments within the Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, namely the Departments of  Defence, Police, and Justice, the Departments of Agriculture and Health, the National Intelligence Agency, as well as the South African Revenue Service, would work together as an integrated whole at border posts. Proposals would be made to the executive on the way forward.

A member said that whenever she visited ports of entry, the staff said that they were from Border Control Operations Coordinating Committee (BCOCC). She wanted to know how this tied up with the Border Management Agency.

Mr Msimang replied that the BCOCC was the current formation in which the SARS, the Police, Health and the other departments referred to earlier, were working. The problem with this formation was that the officials were working in isolation and remained `loyal` to their parent Departments. What the Border Management Agency tried to accomplish was that all of these services and agencies would work together in an integrated fashion, complementing each other, and in this manner tighten the security at border posts. They would almost be akin to autonomous units. The SAPS was manning the border posts, but this was going to change with involvement again from the Department of Defence.

Mr. John Carneston, Acting Head: Strategy, DHA, added that the model still needed some discussion. It would be linked to the larger systems of Home Affairs.

Ms Maunye asked whether the Government Motor Transport Department was still based in Gauteng, as in the past.

Mr Apleni replied that through the implementation of the Public Finance Management Act, it became possible for office bearers to do financial transactions where they were situated. Not all transactions were channeled through head office, as was done before, meaning office bearers could buy motor vehicles where they were situated, independent of the Government Motor Transport Department head office.

Dr C Mulder (FF+) asked what amount the Department spent on consultants in the previous financial year and what amount of money it was planning to spend on consultants in the current financial year.

There was no direct answer to this question.

Ms N Gxowa (ANC) asked whether the 15 new offices were in urban or rural areas.

Mr Mkhize replied that the new offices opened were in a mixture of urban and rural settings. They were in places where the needs were the greatest; for example in Mamelodi, Pretoria with its huge population, which did not have a Home Affairs office previously. In the Western Cape, the DHA concentrated on the rural areas.

The DHA expanded its footprint by scheduling visits to high schools in order to facilitate ID document applications for sixteen-year-olds. Mr Msimang had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Education in order to have easier access to schools.

The Department also targeted out-of-school youth to apply for Identity Documents. 45 new offices were in the planning stages and were due to be opened soon. There was a deliberate bias towards rural farming areas and townships.

Ms Balindlela asked whether the 4x4 vehicles to which Mr Msimang referred would replace the mobile service trucks.

Mr Mkhize replied that the 4x4s mentioned were not replacing the mobile Home Affairs offices. They were an extension of it. They were meant for the deep rural areas that were inaccessible for even the trucks.

Ms Balindlela asked how the Population Register, because of “Who Am I online” ( WAIO), related to other departments, for example Department of Human Settlements. WAIO was a programme that integrated the Population Register with the Social Security, Human Settlement and other databases to identify beneficiaries of social services.  

Ms Balindlela noted that the budget for the National Population Register Database was not big. She asked whether the Department would get help from the Department of Human settlements and SASSA.

Mr Mkhize replied that the National Population Register was a database that contained the personal information on each and every South African citizen and permanent resident. It was the duty of DHA to protect and secure it. Contamination or corruption of this database had far reaching implications for the country.

Ms Terblanche congratulated Mr Msimang on the presentation and thanked him for the turnaround strategy that was implemented under his leadership, and the many measurable improvements that had resulted. She still had a concern, however. The cubicles at the Cape Town International Airport were not put in the correct position. In six months there had been no arrests. The officials could not do profiling correctly

Mr McKay replied that there was a Parliamentary Question tabled about the issue of the security checks and profiling at the airports, and the Minister would respond in due course.

The Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) was letting space to the DHA. ACSA was still in the process of building at Cape Town International Airport. At the present time, ACSA had accommodated the DHA to the best of its ability, but the situation was not ideal. As it stood, it was not conducive to good profiling. All the security agencies of the State were involved. The situation would change as soon as more of the infrastructure was completed and there was more space available.

Ms D Mathebe (ANC) said that she had learned, from the media, that 40 000 sex workers were expected to come to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. She wanted to know how the Department was going to manage the situation.

Mr McKay replied that the National Prosecuting Authority had a task team on Human Trafficking. There was a process under way, whereby the staff at all ports of entry were undergoing training to identify possible victims, and the practical steps involved to prevent it, in order to develop an awareness and understanding of the phenomenon of Human Trafficking. Not only immigration officers were trained, but all personnel working in the Security Cluster at ports of entry. The Portfolio Committee would receive a full report on the Parliamentary Question dealing with this matter.

Mr Carneston added that Mr McKay had touched on how the DHA was working with other government departments and agencies in order to solve the challenges around the movement of people through the ports of entry and exit of South Africa. He said that the DHA had set up a workshop with Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) on this very issue, as a first step towards engaging the Labour Movement, because the migration of people impacted on its work.

He felt that South Africa as a whole should adopt a different mindset, when it came to migration. South Africa was part of a global community in which people migrated. South Africans left for other shores and the country wanted to attract foreign nationals who had skills from which South Africa, as a country, could benefit. There were also other frontiers being crossed, apart from the physical one, for example the financial frontier and the cyber frontier. The question was how would the country attract and integrate foreign nationals who could add value and diversity in an orderly way? This was a very complex matter.

Ms Maunye congratulated the Department on the improvement of the turnaround time for getting an Identity Document. She mentioned the positive comments the Department received on radio shows. She witnessed this improvement herself when visiting the Home Affairs offices in Soweto. There were marshals who had made sure that people were in the correct queues, and that the process flowed.

Mr M Mnqasela (DA) said that the turnaround strategy worked well in some offices, and in others less well. He asked whether the offices that were not performing well could not be identified and earmarked for special attention. He cited the example of a South African citizen who went to the DHA offices in East London to apply for an ID. The person’s identity as a true South African was questioned by the officials. He wondered how the Department was going to ensure that the officials did their duty of preventing fraud, but without undermining the dignity of their clientele, the citizenry of South Africa.

Mr Mkize replied that there was a policy in place that obliged DHA officials to wear name tags. This should have made it easy for clients to identify officials who ill-treated them. However, it was known that sometimes officials swapped name tags, which defeated the whole purpose. The new ruling was that name tags had to contain pictures of the bearers, so that it would be apparent when an official was wearing the wrong name tag.

This Department had a long history of treating people with disrespect. To change this, a total change of organisational culture was needed. There was a dire need for transformation in the DHA, which had a clientele of more than 40 million people. In the budget presentation, under the heading “Breakdown of Special Projects”, there was an item called “Transformation”, to which R10 million was allocated. The purpose of that budget allocation was changing the organisational culture.

Ms Balindlela said that Mr Msimang was leaving behind a positive legacy, as he was retiring from his position as Director General. There was however one area where he failed to make significant inroads, and that was corruption. She asked what advice he would give to his successor.

Ms Balindlela referred to the under spending of grants going to the provinces, and asked how this could be curbed.

Mr Msimang replied that Mr Kwela, who was present in the meeting, was hired because he had some expertise in anti-corruption strategies. He expressed contentment that the turnaround strategy that he had implemented had a degree of success. The efficiency of Home Affairs offices was a topic frequently discussed on radio shows, and some shows rated the transformation of the department at 8 or 9 out of 10.

He said that the Pinetown Home Affairs Office unfortunately had a bad reputation for ill-treating people. The DHA was focusing on offices where there were clearly problems, in this regard, but was also highlighting positive feedback and sending it around in departmental communications, to encourage others to follow suit.

When it came to financial management, the Department was struggling to move in the right direction. The Department moved from disclaimers to qualified reports. Eventually the Department would get an unqualified report. It would just take time.

There were two areas of difficulty in this regard. In the first instance, the Department had to manage and oversee very sophisticated IT operations. Although the actual service could be outsourced, the Department still needed internal capacity to oversee it. Attracting and retaining IT professionals with the required level of expertise in the civil service was extremely difficult, because the remuneration did not compare to what was on offer in the private sector. Consultants, whom the Department was then forced to use, did not have direct management responsibility and were limited by a lack of authority. This situation, in a sense, caused a leadership vacuum which made it impossible to manage the IT area properly.

South African society was afflicted by corruption. The population had lost its sense of shame for wrongdoing. The Department decided to place its focus on prevention, by designing systems that controlled access to resources. Civil servants were going to be held accountable for resources to which they had access. The Department was putting its energies into these anti-corruption strategies.

Civil servants were also suspended without pay. The Department was tightening its relationships with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ) and the South African Police Service (SAPS). In the past, people who were found guilty of forging identity documents were only fined for the monetary value of the material stolen, but a false ID implied a cost of millions of rand to the South African taxpayer. By cooperating with the Department of Justice, the DHA would make sure that the punishment in similar cases was in accordance with the crime.

The DHA also wanted the DoJ to agree to special days set aside in the courts to deal with corruption in the State, so that cases could be processed speedily. The DHA also wanted to instill in its ranks a high level of consciousness regarding corruption.

Ms Terblanche said that a few days previously, when the Minister was asked to comment on the forensic audit report on the DHA, she had said that she had not received it. She asked whether the Minister had received this report since.

Mr Msimang replied that the DHA had received the report. The report had gone to the Ministry, but whether the Minister herself had received it, he could not say.

Mr Mnqasela asked what the turnaround strategy aimed to do about the poor filing and administration in the Refugee Processing Offices. He also asked whether the Department planned a central database on immigration.

Mr McKay replied that it was true that filing and administration was in a bad state in refugee centres, but that in fact filing was in a bad state throughout the Department. The Department was in the process of outsourcing the filing function in order to create some order. There existed a central database for information on immigrants and immigration.

Mr Msimang said that it was important that everybody in the country was on record, according to his/her status. This became necessary since people applied for refugee status at one centre, did not succeed, and then approached another centre to re-apply. With the help of a central database, the person was immediately identified as someone who had applied and was rejected.

The Strategic Plan, as well as the proposed budget for the financial year 2010/11, was adopted by the Committee.

The meeting was adjourned.