Department of Home Affairs Annual Performance Plan and Budget 2013/14, with Deputy Minister in attendance

Meeting report

Opening Statement

The Chairperson welcomed officials from the Department of Home Affairs (the Department), Honourable Members, and guests. She noted the Minister of Home Affairs’ apology for her absence from the meeting – she had an official commitment to attend to. The Committee would discuss the strategic plan of the Department.

Ms Fatima Chohan, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, thanked the Chairperson for the opportunity to speak at the Committee meeting. She noted that the Minister’s absence was a longstanding arrangement and apologised for her not being there. In the interest of time, the Deputy Minister handed the presentation over to the Director-General and encouraged Members to reflect on the presentation and to ask questions at the end.

Briefing by Department of Home Affairs (DHA) on Annual Performance Plan: 2013/14 - 2015/16

Mr Mkustui Apleni, Director-General, DHA, introduced the Department’s Annual Performance Plan (APP) presentation. He noted that the Minister had approved the PowerPoint presentation and that some of its substance was determined at a fall retreat for Department officials.

The presentation gave a brief summary of how government’s priorities were outlined in the APP, and showed the Department’s transformation strategy, human resources strategy, employment equity status and its modernisation project.

The vision for transformation included that:

• Every visa and permit should be issued on the basis of an effective risk analysis and the identity, business and location of foreign nationals in South Africa is known.
• Immigration would be used to proactively advance national interests; and the entry, stay and exit of legitimate visitors is facilitated rapidly.
• Ports of Entry are secure, efficient and welcoming of legitimate travellers.
• The status of asylum seekers is securely and efficiently determined; and genuine refugees are assisted in a coordinated way by relevant Departments and by national and international organisations
• The corporate image and basic office environment is of the same high standard everywhere. 
• Home Affairs sets the standard for e-government and the cost effective and creative use of many alternative channels for service delivery.
• All South Africans have a secure identity and are proud of it

• There are highly skilled, professional, caring staff that is security conscious and 100% committed to serving the people of South Africa.
• Technology that is used effectively to secure the identity and the status of every citizen and to render them a quality service.
• Every citizen has a “smart” ID card with information that is accurate, reliable and visibly protected by committed, patriotic officials.
• All documents have advanced security features.
• There is live capture of biometrics and other information and all documents are captured electronically. There are no duplicates.
• A robust system of monitoring and evaluation, using accurate statistics, is used to manage performance and ensure accountability.
• Home Affairs is at the heart of a secure identity and immigration system that is trusted, supported and used by all departments and other partners.

Achievements

The Department is on track to achieve the annual target of 594 000 births registered within 30 days. This represented an increase of 6% compared to the proportion of projected births registered in 2011/12. It was likely that 80 additional health facilities would be connected for online registration of births and deaths. 787 949 Ids were issued to 16-year olds – 79% of the target for the year. Progress was made regarding developing specifications and testing the ID smart card. Steps have been taken to strengthen coordination, security and efficiency at Cape Town harbour with the design and renovation of a building that will house all departments that function in the marine environment. This will assist in developing a management model for all ports of entry.

APP: Outcomes

The Department informed the Committee that the APP was grounded on three outcomes:

1)     Secured South African citizenship and identity

2)     Immigration managed effectively and securely in the national interest

3)     A service that is efficient and corruption free.

(For more detailed information, see presentation)

Key Strategic Priorities over the next three years

• Manage immigration
• Clean and protect the National Population Register
• Modernise the Department
• Eradicate poor service delivery
• Achieve a clean audit

Mr Apleni explained that partnering with the Department of Health would ensure that birth registration was a smoother, more consistent process. There were cultural issues that made timely birth registration more difficult. For example, certain families reserved the privilege of naming new-borns to their grandfathers. Oftentimes new-borns must leave the hospital unnamed in order to follow this tradition, but in-hospital birth registration is the easiest, fastest way. He also noted the importance of parents bringing their ID numbers to hospitals at the time of birth. Birth registration legislation was important to communicate to the nation.

The Department hoped that the launch of the Smart Card would also help. He anticipated that in its first year, 100,000 citizens would have Smart Cards, but that 3 million would five years after the card’s launch, and that the launch would create jobs in the Department. He noted that the Minister would elaborate on the progress of the Smart Card later.

The Department was also seeking to improve how South Africa handled scarce skills. The Department wanted a shift so that a family could be evaluated as a whole. For example, if a husband and wife both wanted to stay in South Africa, but only the husband had a job falling under the ‘scarce skills’ category, the wife could also stay in South Africa as if she had ‘scarce skills’ status.

Briefing by the Department of Home Affairs on its Budget for 2013/14

Ms Rudzani Raskikhinya, the Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Home Affairs, began a PowerPoint presentation on the Department’s budget for 2013/14. The presentation outlined the steps taken by the Department to allocate the budget for the 2013/14 financial year to different programmes and sub-programmes in order to deliver on the strategic plan.

In terms of the projections, the Department was likely to spend 99.5% of its budget, excluding the earmarked funds for the Department’s modernisation project. An amount of R1 billion and R260 million was allocated over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period for the Department’s modernisation projects and border posts infrastructure, respectively. No additional operating funding has been allocated to the Department for the MTEF period. The increase when comparing year on year is due to the allocation of earmarked funds and the cost of living adjustments relating to Compensation of Employees.

Cost-saving measures

Over the 2012/13 financial year, the Department achieved a 25% reduction in its entertainment budget and a 50% reduction in catering, venues and facilities. For the 2013/14 financial year, there will be a 25% reduction in the catering budget for provinces, and a 40% reduction in the catering budget for branches. The result was that the cuts were allocated to fund the shortfall in deportation.

Progress in addressing audit opinion of 2011/12

An action plan was developed and action steps put in place together with timeframe. To address the qualification matter, the Department is 85% complete in re-calculating the balance as reported in 2011/12. All re-calculations have been reviewed. In terms of the information for the 2012/13 financial year, all documents for the period April 2012 to January 2013 was collected and is subject to review by the Department. With regard to the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO), there are monthly DG-to-DG meetings and the current Memorandum of Understanding is being reviewed. The Department has also submitted errata for the 2012/13 APP as well as a strategic plan for 2013/14, and awaits the Auditor-General’s written report. High-level findings were presented and the APP was adjusted accordingly. igh

Ms Raskikhinya explained that due to the national election next year, the budget must shift, so the Department may contribute money to the Independent Election Commission (IEC). She noted that the Department allocated more funds toward Immigration than Citizen Affairs because Provinces already received a budget to cover some costs of Citizen Affairs. She noted that the Cape Town Harbour Department Building has been allocated a space that needed to be reworked to ensure enough power supply, bandwidth, and room for all the Departments.

Discussion

The Chairperson thanked officials for their presentations. She reminded the Department that typically, when a briefing ends, Members ask questions and make comments, and Department officials are invited to respond when all Members have had the opportunity to speak.

Mr A Guam (ANC) said that he was pleased the Department was increasing security at ports of entry, especially at the harbour. He noted that the presentation did not mention the unprotected coastline and expressed his concern that the Department did not speak about a plan to improve this. In addition, the Department set a target of issuing only 50% of permanent residency permits within eight months, which seemed low. He asked if that meant that another 30% of permanent residency permits would be issued within 10 months. He asked what would happen to the 50% of people that did not receive their permits within eight months. Although he acknowledged that the presentation included other targets that were much better, he asked Department officials to indicate why the target for permanent residency permits was so low and how the Department planned to correct this slow service delivery time.

Mr M Mnqasela (DA) said that he had many questions, but that he would limit himself to questions that were possible for Department officials to answer. He said he was concerned about the Department’s reputation for arrests and detainments of foreigners. Foreigners have been asked to come forward to share their stories, but regardless, there have been widespread allegations that the Department has spent too much money arbitrarily trying to arrest people of foreign backgrounds. He said that while this may not be true, the budget Ms Raskikhinya presented included lots of funds for deportation costs. He said that it would be better for the Department to stop illegal immigrants from entering South Africa in the first place.

Mr Mnqasela raised a few more points. He said that it was important to have a balanced budget and pointed out that catering was sometimes a wasteful expenditure. He asked Department officials how they would fill vacant posts within six months, considering the high vacancy rate of the Department. He said he fully supported the fact that late registration was a focal point of the Department’s strategic plan. He noted that he had previously noted that far-flung areas of South Africa rely on the service of mobile offices to a Deputy Director-General. He reiterated this point, saying that if the mobile services were not operational, the Department would never be able to claim the National Population Register.
 

Ms P Peterson-Maduna (ANC) said that she was concerned for the safety of South Africa because millions of people have been coming into the country. She said that building an accurate date system was crucial, but asked how exactly it ought to be done. She was pleased that the Department’s briefing addressed disability issues, including how the Department would achieve the 2% employment mandate for disabled people.

Mr M De Freitas (DA) requested the latest version of presentation electronically because Members had only been given last week’s draft electronically before asking a series of questions. When would the target number of 50,000 skilled migrants be achieved? How far have the negotiations gone to approve a single visa for visitors? When the presentation refers to the National Development Plan’s goal of establishing a presence in strategic countries, which countries were being referred to and why were they deemed strategic? Would the certificated earned by Home Affairs students at the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy be recognised outside of the Department of Home Affairs? Has the Department’s Status Determination Committee been equipped in terms of human resources to deal with the high volume of cases? Why does the presentation show that the Department would maintain high contributions to the Independent Electoral Commission for two years in a row, considering that the national election would be taking place only during the next year? What changed to make the Government Printing Works (GPW) self-sustainable and what could Home Affairs learn from this success? How does the Department’s funding of major sports events fit into its strategic goals, other than accommodating an influx of guests in South Africa? He also praised the work the Department was doing to receive a clean audit.

The Deputy Minister asked if it would be okay for Members to ask questions in two sets, so that Department officials would have an easier time to fully respond to Members’ questions.

The Chairperson granted her request.

The Deputy Minister said that she could let any of the Department officials answer the Members’ questions, but that she would deal with one or two of the issues raised. She agreed that preventative measures were better to combat the presence of illegal immigrants in South Africa, saying that deporting people raised humanitarian concerns, especially since most of the people who emigrated to South Africa illegally did so for economic reasons. Not all developing countries had to deal with the issue of illegal immigration and high levels of illegal immigration were more likely to take place in regions of the world with unequal levels of development. As politicians, it was important to pause and think critically about which approach the country should take to deal with illegal immigration. The Department saw deportations as part of the solution, not the whole solution. Improving borderline security was also important to protect South African’s sovereignty.

The Deputy Minister added that throwing money at the problem of illegal immigration would not solve it. She said that she had studied the United States-Mexico border, as it was one of the primary examples of illegal immigration from a country that was not very economically advanced and one that was. The United States spent an enormous amount of money to prevent illegal immigrants from Mexico entering their country, yet the US experienced its highest levels of illegal immigration ever. The global recession brought economic concerns into sharp focus and was a major reason for illegal immigration in South Africa and around the world. The Department had to invest substantially in border security, but part of the solution had to rely on investing in the economic development of neighbouring countries. South Africa should bear in mind the interests of its immediate neighbours and of the African continent as a whole in matters of international relations because the security and success of South Africa was inextricably linked to the security and success of these other countries.

She informed the Committee that the Department was exploring special work visas for certain countries included in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). She asked Members to think about this possibility and provide input to the Department. She concluded that illegal immigration was a difficult subject in South Africa and around the world, and that as politicians, Department officials and Committee Members must come up with new, innovative, and creative ways to deal with illegal immigration that do not rely too heavily on deportation. She added that the Immigration Act passed by the current Parliament did criminalise illegal presence in this country and that if legislation exists, it should be followed. Ignoring the laws of the country is an illegal offence and the more the South Africans took the Immigration Act seriously, the more others would. Courts have been known to let illegal immigrants go on bail, even though entering South Africa illegally was made a criminal offence in the Immigration Act. She called on the country to follow its existing laws, while still addressing the socio-economic reasons that caused illegal immigration in the first place.

Mr Apleni added that addressing the unprotected coastline was part of the Department’s plan and that the Minister would be submitting a Cabinet memo in April that would discuss border improvement plans in further detail. He said that the target of sending 50% of permanent residency permits out within an eight-month period was a realistic goal. The Department has been working to simplify the process of transitioning from a temporary resident to a permanent one. The Department has also been promoting a paperless work environment, noting that when the Department relies on hard copies of documents, it was difficult to track and trace the documents. Because of the push for electronic files, the Department predicts a lot of progress in terms of tracking and tracing by 2014. The Department has learned from past mistakes in terms of filling vacancies and has prioritised filling vacancies for higher-level positions and has made it possible for heads of provincial governments to fill vacancies up to level 8. Previously, heads of provincial government had to wait on the approval of senior Department officials to fill vacancies up to level 6.

He said that the Department has been working to address the challenges posed by people who live on farms, especially ones in remote areas. The Department would be prepared to visit the farm on a Sunday or Saturday, if necessary, to ensure that as many South Africans as possible are included in the National Population Register. He said the Department hoped that by the time the next Annual Performance Plan is presented, the 2% mandate for disabled people’s employment would be achieved.

The Department recognised that that other countries allow a person to stay in their country for five years if they possess a ‘scare skill,’ but South Africa only allows people to stay for one year. The Departments wanted to increase the number of years people can stay in South Africa if they possess ‘scarce skills’ and to shorten the amount of time required for naturalisation. South Africa was one of the countries piloting the UniVisa.

Mr Jackson McKay, a Deputy Director-General for the Department of Home Affairs, said that the Department would be offering a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 5 accreditation. He said that the NQF Level 5 distinction had been recently recognised by the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA) and that everyone employed at the DHA would also participate in an induction ceremony by PALAMA.

Ms Raskikhinya addressed the Committee saying that Home Affairs was the biggest client for Government Printing Works (GPW). She said that GPW made a profit of R106 million in 2012. The National Treasury determined that GPW would now be self-sustaining. GPW recently purchased new machines and its maintenance costs would decrease. She said the Department of Home Affairs was allocated funds for upcoming sports events, just like it had been allocated money for the 2010 World Cup and the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. The Department of Home Affairs receives funds in order to cover extra security costs; many employees work overtime hours or work more shifts than they usually do around these big sports events.

The Chairperson said that if all questions had been answered, Mr McIntosh, Ms D Mathebe, and Ms G Bothman would be permitted to ask questions.

Mr McIntosh quoted the Bible line, ‘Without a vision, the people perish,’ and thanked the Department for an interesting presentation. He said he was excited to see the Department working so hard. It was a big responsibility for the Department to assume some of the Department of Public Work’s responsibilities in terms of border management, but said he was impressed by their efforts. The Department would require a core staff of engineers, architects, and others to address border management issues. He said that he was not generally opposed to hiring consultants on an ad hoc basis because he saw consultants as service providers. He suggested that the Department tap the skills of retired engineers because they would be happy to commit to working for the Department for a few years. He suggested that the Department draw up a contract that would allow for the immediate termination of employees guilty of misconduct. He said that if a contract were drawn up, it should allow the Department to notify other departments of the former employee’s behaviour to ensure that the government would not hire the individual ever again. He acknowledged that people were usually more comfortable speaking to people with similar backgrounds and that diversity in government was necessary to be sensitive. Regardless of how diverse a government body was, it needed to be effective as well. He hoped that the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy would improve the effectiveness of government employees.

Mr McIntosh asked Department officials to elaborate on the activities of Cubans. He was pleased that the Deputy Minister had studied the illegal immigration debate between the United States and Mexico. He said that a current debate in the United States was over how to legalise the people who had immigrated to the United States illegally. He expressed concern over the cost of electronically filing birth registrations. He asked if hospitals would hire one full-time staff person to file birth registrations electronically or whether existing hospital employees could be paid extra to file birth registrations electronically. He asked the Department to discuss how it planned to address child mortality and foreign mothers giving birth in South Africa. He expressed concern that the Department’s birth registration system was not working as well as they thought it was. His grandson was recently born in Bloemfontein in a private hospital since the baby’s parents were doctors. His family experienced trouble securing a birth registration form in a timely manner. He wondered how much worse the conditions may be for people living in more remote areas. He asked what would happen to people living in more remote areas. He said it was necessary for the Department to brainstorm ideas to improve birth registration to ensure that the registration process is as efficient as possible, especially since so many people think that registering every birth in South Africa would help solve many of the country’s problems.

Mr McIntosh asked what the acronym PMDS stood for.

Others replied that PMDS stood for ‘Performance Management Development System.’

Ms D Mathebe (ANC) said that a major challenge facing the Department was to manage refugees and asylum-seekers across the country because it is difficult to determine who they were, where they were, when they arrived, and how they arrived. She asked if there was any progress of positive skills to be reported to the Committee. She said that children living in rural areas without proper roads and/or without mobile clinics might never get registered. She noted how dire it was for the Department to address the problems with ports of entries. She recalled that some of the people in the room used the same ports of entry in existence today to go into exile during the Apartheid era, and noted that today, the ports of entry were being used for a different purpose, to ensure the security of South Africa’s borders.

Ms G Bothman (ANC) recalled that in his 2013 State of the Nation Address, the President directed government departments to fill vacancies within four months, but noticed that the Department was seeking to fill vacancies within six months. She also suggested that the Department approach issues with the six pillars of the National Development Plan (NDP) in mind. If all Departments clearly aligned their Annual Performance Plans with the NDP, all Departments would move in the same direction. She also suggested that the Department provide the Committee with a draft of its Annual Performance Plan, so that Members’ input could be considered prior to its finalisation. That way, Members’ concerns would be noted, but not necessarily incorporated.

The Chairperson said she was concerned about the contingent liability on R1.2 billion of legal claims for irregular expenditures to non-accredited vendors and irregular spending on labour disputes. She noted that the trading account was not mentioned in the presentation, so she asked for a briefing. She asked the Chief Financial Officer to brief the Committee on the trading account. She said that having a single visa for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries was a good idea, but asked how it would work. She wanted Department officials to elaborate on the steps being taken to modernise the Department, but indicated that she was in support of the Department’s modernisation. She noted that the Director-General’s comments on online birth registration might have been sugar coated. She said that when Members visit hospitals, especially rural ones, they notice a lack of a proper working relationship between Department of Health officials and Department of Home Affairs officials. The Director-General of the Department of Home Affairs should work with the Director-General of the Department of Health to improve this working relationship. She said that the Committee had been raising concerns with the way the Committee of Public Works has been operating and how it has been treating Home Affairs. She said she was concerned about how to improve residential accommodations and said it was important to hire project managers needed and to maintain an ambassador programme vis-à-vis provincial champions.

The Deputy Minister said that she would answer a few questions, and then the Director-General would answer questions. She acknowledged that the Border Management Agency (BMA) would be a huge responsibility for the Department. The Department would be taking a document to Cabinet on the BMA soon. She said that the Department expected concrete plans around July or August.

She said that Honourable Member Mathebe was right to point out that the ports of entry have not changed in many years and that that the infrastructure was developed for a different purpose and for a different age. Back then, South Africa was not really engaging with much of the rest of the world, but now, some of South Africa’s biggest priorities are economic trade and development and international engagement. In the modern era, it would be difficult for a country to survive with closed borders. Noting the difficulties of a non-cohesive relationship the DHA has with the Department of Public Works, she said that improving the security at ports of entry as well as borderlines was a medium to long-term focus for the Department. She suggested that Members contact the Department in July or August to learn more about the specifics for this initiative. The Department said it had made fighting corruption a priority as well. The impression that employees guilty of misconduct maintain their positions at the DHA would be incorrect. When the Department finds an employee guilty of misconduct, that employee is dismissed. She said that the Department could not stop former employees from making appeals to the courts. She emphasised the importance of vetting job candidates before they are hired. She said that everyone ought to be vigilant for corruption and that Members’ efforts to assist the Department in uncovering corruption would be appreciated. The Department has gone on record multiple times saying that it would make every possible effort to fight corruption.

The Deputy Minister said that she thought of South Africa’s diversity differently than Mr McIntosh did. She said that South Africa was unique because it did not require people to conform to particular standards. In fact, the absolute wonder of South Africa is that diversity is celebrated. She acknowledged that the government could be doing better with minority groups and asked the Committee to hold the Department more accountable in this regard. She said that the Department of Home Affairs must cover everybody’s home. The Department could do more to be more diverse.

The Deputy Minister was surprised to hear of the trouble Honourable Member McIntosh’s family had securing a birth registration and asked him to report the problems to the Department. She said that foreigners who give birth in South Africa as well as South African women who give birth abroad are required to record the birth and register the birth at the proper embassy. These babies would not necessarily be added to the country’s National Population Record. The Department has worked to service people in rural and remote areas through hospitals and when they get vaccinated. A baby’s first vaccination is supposed to occur within its first two weeks of life, so if all babies who received vaccines were given birth registrations, the National Population Record would be much more accurate. Developing a strong partnership with the Department of Health has been crucial in order to do this. She said it was also important to instil a sense of civic duty in citizens, saying a sense civic duty inspired some hospital workers to complete birth registrations efficiently.

The Deputy Minister said that birth registration was about giving a child an identity. The Department has been working to establish a presence in as many localities as possible, either through offices or through the use of mobile trucks or 4x4 vehicles. The Department has opted to use four by four vehicles to achieve its objectives, rather than wait for roads to be built. Many problems would be solved by registering all children within thirty days of birth, diminishing the need for late registration.  She urged Members to tell the Department if they know of any areas where the Department has not visited. She agreed that the Department has been largely in the dark in terms of asylum-seekers and refugees, but said that obtaining more accurate statistics on asylum-seekers and refugees would be a good way for them to monitor their statuses in South Africa. Unlike most other countries, when a refugee has been approved to stay in South Africa, the government did not track where the refugee went. In other countries, refugees may be provided with accommodation, education, and even language training, to better integrate into the society. They may even be told where to live within the country. South Africa simply does not have the resources to do the same.

Mr Vusi Mkhize, Deputy Director-General in the Department, explained that the Department was discussing piloting special visa waivers for SADC countries. He reiterated how important it was for the Department to become paperless and to push for biometric technology, to improve the Department’s ability to track citizens’ work history, financial situation, marriage status. Online birth registration would be a good goal for the Department. He said he would take the advice of Members and meet with officials from the Department of Health to make the Department’s birth registration efforts more effective. He reminded Members that the Minister of Home Affairs would be producing a Cabinet memo in April. He emphasised the importance of what he called ‘champions of Province,’ or people that the Department could talk to in any given Province to easily ascertain how a certain policy or programme would impact a specific Province. He assured Honourable Member McIntosh that the Department would look at changes to its employment programme and noted that at the moment, only Director-Generals signed five-year performance contracts. The Department would be closely monitoring traffic, especially bus traffic, around Easter to secure the country’s borders. He told Honourable Member Bothman that Members’ suggestions would still be taken into account, but said that next year the DHA could take Members’ input prior to producing a final Annual Performance Plan, so that it could be clearly incorporated. He noted that the Department should work with various Portfolio Committees, including Economic Development and Labour, in order to accomplish its goals in the spirit of the National Development Plan.

A Department official added that the Department had to reposition itself as an employer of choice. She said staff members must act and look professional and play the role of a change agent on a mission to spread security awareness. The Department initially tried to abide by the President’s time frame for filling vacancies, but quickly realised that it was not a realistic goal after mapping it out. The DHA set a new goal of six months to fill vacancies, but was still striving to fill vacancies in an even shorter amount of time. She said that last year, vacancies were filled in about five months, but that this year, vacancies were filled in about seven months. There was room for the DHA to improve in this respect.

Mr Sello Mmakau, the Deputy Director-General for Information Services for the Department of Home Affairs, said that the Department was building itself up as a security-focused department responding to modernisation. He said that many stakeholders were involved in the Department’s technology explorations.

Ms Raskikhinya noted that some Department officials had been working almost seven days a week to complete all of its work, even if it was not obvious. She explained that the financial team had to deal with financial records from August 2004 to the present. The Director-General noticed the progress the team had made last week at a meeting. She said that by the end of March, the financial team would be done. She explained that there were R1.26 billion in legal claims against the Department. Since some cases had not been updated since 2005, the financial team had been working to take the cases off of the Department. There had been no new cases against Department’s Civil Services. She explained that there were only two big cases that were filed against the Department, and that the rest were minor cases. She said that it was important to go through the Courts to resolve the matter, instead of through the Chairperson to the Portfolio Committee or the Minister of Home Affairs. She noted that the financial team was in talks with the Treasury to figure out a way to defray the costs of the rollout of the Smart Card.

Mr Mkhize indicated that the recent launch of the unabridged birth certificates has helped the Department’s effectiveness, partly because both parents must verify that they are South African citizens. He explained that it was still possible to create a fraudulent birth certificate, but that it would continue to be increasingly harder to do. The DHA could use biometric technology to monitor who enters data into the National Population Register. The DHA was working with Telkom and others to upgrade the satellite system. Additional 4x4’s were delivered to the Northern Cape, hospitals were being expanded and being connected. Over the next three years, the DHA expected 795 hospitals to be connected. The DHA has studied how many births ought to be expected in certain hospitals in order to determine how that hospital should be staffed. The DHA has created three levels of priority based on the number of births hospitals experience per month. If hospitals have high numbers of births, a full-time staff person would be available to work the National Population Register, whereas a hospital with fewer births per month might share an employee with a couple other nearby hospitals. This would create a culture change and more and more birth registrations would be filed within thirty days of birth.

Closing

The Chairperson thanked the Deputy Minister, Director-General, and other Department officials for their presentation and for responding to Members’ questions. She said she was looking forward to the modernisation project. She recalled that in 2004, the Director-General at the time predicted that it would take ten years to fully implement modern systems and that today, the Committee was beginning to see the light. She thanked the guests again and said that they could exit the meeting if they wished.

The Deputy Minister thanked the Chairperson and the Honourable Members for their time. She said that the Department’s goals would be a huge endeavour, but noted that the Department and the Committee were keen to see the goals realised. She said that the Department had been trying to be sure about the small steps it takes toward achieving goals, rather than taking big leaps and making mistakes.

The Chairperson thanked the Deputy Minister. She asked the Honourable Members if they wanted to adopt the outstanding minutes now or wait until the following week.

Members agreed to consider and adopt the minutes the following week.

Mr McIntosh asked if tomorrow’s meeting with the Ugandan delegation would include time for lunch and also noted that Parliament Plenary Debates would start at 3pm that day.

The Chairperson said that the meeting would likely be adjourned from 12:30 to 1:30 for lunch.

Mr McIntosh said that he would try to attend both.

The meeting was adjourned.