KwaZulu Natal & Western Cape Provincial Managers on the state of their provinces: briefings; Electoral Amendment Bill: Adoption of Committee Report

Meeting report

Electoral Amendment Bill [PMB2-2013]: Adoption of the Committee Report
The Chairperson tabled the report and invited Members to comment.

Ms G Bothman (ANC) suggested that the first bullet point be summarised as “accountability not by means of numbers but by the system introduced to ensure that members do account”. She felt this was a more efficient summary of the whole paragraph.

She also proposed that the last bullet point, starting “This Bill has been properly researched by the Electoral Commission…” and the following paragraph, starting “Given the fact that the implementation of the proposed private member’s Bill…” should be combined, as they made a similar point.

Mr A Gaum (ANC) did not agree with the proposal to summarise the paragraph, as he thought that it was important that all arguments that had been advanced and all questions that had been asked should be reflected in detail in the report. This would assist the House in seeing what the Committee’s reasoning had been behind passing the motion of undesirability.

Mr Gaum also pointed out several grammatical errors.

Mr P Groenewald (FF+) also emphasised the issue of accountability. He said that the objective of the bill was to ensure greater accountability from public representatives to the electorate. The proposed bill did not ensure that aim. An electoral system on its own could not ensure accountability.

The Chairperson felt that most of the issues that had been raised were captured in the Committee’s Report, and felt that they did not need to be debated again.

Ms  Bothman said that Mr Selfe, who had presented the Bill, had put the main emphasis on accountability. Therefore, the emphasis of the report should also be on accountability as the basis of the Committee’s decision that it would be undesirable to deal with the Bill, more than the other reasons captured in the report.

Adv Charmaine van der Merwe, Parliamentary Legal Adviser, proposed that the part of the first bullet point dealing with accountability, which began, “Whilst aimed at greater accountability, it is questionable to what extent a proportional representation list at constituency level will achieve this…” be moved to a separate bullet point.

Ms Bothman said this would help to some extent.

Mr Groenewald agreed with the suggestion.

Ms Bothman objected to the part of the report that said “it may be more appropriate for it [the Bill] to be considered by the Fifth Parliament”. She asked if it was proper to bind the Fifth Parliament to deal with the Bill.

Mr Gaum said that the report used the word “may”, so this was not binding.

Mr Groenewald asked for confirmation that the Parliamentary Rules stated that if a private Member Bill was not accepted, then it could not be resubmitted until the next term.

Members confirmed that this was the case.

Mr Gaum proposed that instead of saying it might be “more appropriate for it [the Bill] to be considered by the fifth parliament”, the report could be changed to say that it might be “more appropriate for legislation of this nature to be considered by the Fifth Parliament”.

Ms Bothman said that this still gave the person the opportunity to submit the Bill again.

Mr Groenewald proposed that the section in question be deleted, and that the sentence should read “the Committee is of the opinion that this is probably not the time for legislation of this nature to be passed” and not elaborate on when it should be considered.

The Chairperson asked Ms van der Merwe to make these amendments.

As there was no quorum, Ms C Dudley (ACDP) joined the Committee for the adoption of the report. She stated that the ACDP was not in favour of the Bill being passed.

Ms Bothman wanted the Report to be adopted with the exclusion of the first paragraph, so that it only including the part that dealt with accountability.

The Committee Report was adopted, with amendments.

The Chairperson said that changes that had already been discussed would be made and an extra bullet point would be added.

The Report was adopted, with amendments.

Provincial Departments of Home Affairs Reports on the state of their Province:
KwaZulu Natal Provincial Department
Mr A Matsaung, Acting Provincial Manager: KwaZulu Natal, briefed the Committee on the state of the province. He introduced the District Managers who had accompanied him to the meeting in order to meet the Members and to answer questions on their districts.

He noted that the Portfolio Committee conducted an oversight visit to KwaZulu Natal from 2 to 6 June 2013. Mr Matsaung ran through the issues that were identified during that visit, and the progress that had been made since then.

At the Golela Port of Entry it was found that there was a need to improve office accommodation, a shortage of staff quarters and a shortage of staff to run the shifts. The matter had been tabled with the Border Control and Operations Coordinating Committee (BCOCC), and funds had been allocated for port infrastructure. Newly built accommodation had been acquired for staff and was already occupied. A post of Office Manager, and twelve posts for immigration had been allocated, and officials would resume their duties in August 2013.

At the Onverwacht Port of Entry there was a problem with office accommodation, no appointed office manager, and a staff shortage. This matter had also been brought to BCOCC and engagement with the Department of Public Works (DPW) was ongoing. An office manager had been appointed in July 2013, with two additional officials to be appointed with effect from 1 August 2013.

There was also a staff shortage at the Kosi Bay Port of Entry, no vehicle to run office operations, and Gate Six was being poorly managed. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was engaged to strengthen the operation at Gate Six. Two additional officials would be added to the structure from the twelve allocated to Golela. A vehicle was allocated on a full time basis to the office.

It had been found, at the Mtubatuba Medium Office had no signage, its lifts for disabled clients were not operational, only three computers were allocated to the front desk, and the mobile offices were not functional. In response to these problems a new supplier for signage was being appointed by the Department, the lift had been fixed, two additional computers had been procured and the two mobile offices had been made operational as new satellite dishes had been installed.

There had been a need for vehicle allocation to the Uthungulu Large Office but two Ford Rangers had since been allocated.

It was noted that Durban Harbour had a staff shortage, with only five staff members appointed. In response, 23 Immigration Officers, eight Control Immigration Officers and two Assistant Directors had been appointed from 1 April 2013. An Office Manager at Deputy Director level and two Administration Clerks were to be appointed in the third quarter.

It had been found that Addington Hospital had no signage for the office and no coordination between the hospital management and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) with regard to registration of births. Temporary signage had since been affixed and weekly meetings were being held where both the stakeholders were attending.

The eThekwini Large Office had problems with a great imbalance of gender representation, the fact that officials were being paid while on long suspensions, and the Committee noted that there were files that had been stored in the permitting section containing crucial information. Future appointments were to address the gender imbalance. All five officials that had been on suspensions had had their cases finalised and they had been dismissed. The files in question had been properly filed in an orderly manner.

At the Provincial Manager’s office, mobile units had not been functional and the office lacked appointed hospital staff. An expansion of DHA’s footprint into Grey Town was suggested.  In response a tender had since been secured with Sentech and all 17 mobile units had been fitted with new dishes and connected. The office was awaiting approval for the office expansion, and hospital staff had been prioritised for 2014/15.

Footprint
Mr Matsaung then briefed the Committee on the background situation in KwaZulu Natal, and the Department’s footprint in all 11 districts of the province.

Civic Services
Mr Matsaung noted that this reports were related to the targets that were identified in the provincial business plan.

The annual target for births registered within 30 calendar days of birth was 104 621 births for 2012/13. The actual performance thus far was 103 134 births.

The target for late registration of birth (LRB) applications was that these must be processed within 70 days. 23 716 LRB applications were received and dispatched to Head Office; 23 351 fingerprints had been received back from Head office; 365 applications were referred to the Inspectorate; 209 applications were finalised by the Inspectorate; and 19 387 ID numbers were created by Head Office.

It was identified that an additional nine health institutions were required with maternity facilities operational for online birth registration. Four health institutions had been connected in 2012/13 and seven were planned for 2013/14.

The provincial target for first issue Identity Documents (IDs) issued to citizens aged 16 years and above was 220 567 IDs. The actual number achieved was 237 280 IDs. As of 12 July 2013, there were 63 632 uncollected IDs in the province.

Four outreach programmes were planned for the year with the aim of eradicating LRB and campaigning for people to apply for IDs in order to allow for voter registration. Outreach programmes were run in Zululand from 20-25 May 2013; Umkhanyakude from 13-17 May 2013; Amajuba from 26 May–7 June 2013; and Uthungulu from 9-15 June 2013.

Immigration Services
The reporting on immigration services also related to the provincial business plan. The province had eight ports, staffed with 61 officials and 32 inspectorate officials. There were serious capacity challenges and the Department was in the process of post prioritisation to channel some Port posts to the Inspectorate. In eight ports of entry there were 95 immigration officers and 28 vacant funded posts.

The province had targeted that 180 employers were likely to be prosecuted in terms of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 as amended. In reality, 165 were prosecuted.

2 319 transgressors of Departmental legislation were detected and deported, against a target of 2 050.

Golela Port of Entry (POE) had the highest number of migrations for the period 2012/13. King Shaka Airport had also observed an increase as a result of the AFCON games and some of the other activities that were held in the province. Richards Bay Harbour cleared 1 406 migrants, during the reporting period.

Asylum Seeker Management
The Refugee Reception Centre had 7 098 new arrivals and 55 766 extensions of temporary asylum permits. 7 098 people were interviewed and 7 096 were adjudicated. Of these 4 458 were found to be unfounded, and 2 443 were found to be manifestly unfounded, leaving only 195 people whose applications were approved.

He noted that KwaZulu Natal (KZN) was unusual, in that the majority of its asylum seekers did not come from countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The top five countries for new arrivals were the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Pakistan, India and Burundi.

Angolan Cessation
The Angolan cessation project was under way in KZN. There were 16 active Angolan files. Of these, 15 were from recognised refugees, and there were 10 dependents linked to those files. One file was from an asylum seeker, with two dependents linked to the file. There were 120 inactive Angolan files. Of these, 32 files were from recognised refugees, with 13 dependents linked to those files, and 88 files were from asylum seekers, with two linked dependents.

Twenty-five Section-24 permit holders reported to the Refugee Reception Centre in Durban and these permits were extended until 30 August 2013. All 47 files had been sent to Standing Committee on Refugee Affairs (SCRA) for letters of intention to withdraw. SCRA submitted 13 letters of intention to withdraw status. The office expected to receive the remaining letters from SCRA by the end of July 2013.

Three Angolan refugees had Angolan passports and 21 refugees had applied for Angolan passports at the Angolan embassy in Durban. Three Angolan passport holders had applied for temporary residence permits and were issued with the permits.

One asylum seeker’s section 22 permit was to expire on 15 August 2013 and that person was to be booked for an hearing when he approached the office for an extension, as he could not be contacted telephonically.

For the future, DHA was being assisted by Angolan government officials in the applications for Angolan passports. Once the Angolan government notified DHA that all passports were ready for collection by refugees, arrangements would be made for them to go to the refugee centre to receive their passports and apply for temporary residence permits. The permitting officials were also assisting by informing the Angolans of the requirements of the various temporary residence permits. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was also present to offer guidance and assistance.

Human Resources
Human resources functions of approval and appointment of staff from level 1 to 8 had been delegated to the Provincial Manager with effect from 1 April 2013, with the result that the province managed to fill 60 posts between the April and 30 July 2013, increasing provincial staff capacity to 92%. Staff establishment of the province had thus been increased from 766 to 856 since 1 April 2012, with an incremental figure of 90 posts. At the time of the presentation, the province had 790 officials appointed. Staff establishment reflected more females at a lower level than males and more males at a management level than their female counterparts, so there was a need to address this equity imbalance. Equity overall still posed a challenge as there were fewer Whites and Indians within the appointed staff. There was also a challenge in attracting people with disabilities.

The total establishment had 856 posts, of which 790 were filled, with 65 vacant funded posts. This meant that the establishment was at 92% performance capacity. There were 327 male staff and 463 female staff. At a supervisor level only 38% of the staff were female. 42% of the staff in KZN were below 34 years old and entering a career with the Department. 47% were from 35–50 years old. 7% of staff were within the early retirement bracket and 4% were within the retirement bracket and the Department may need to budget for severance payouts for those employees.

The majority of the staff (50%) had a National Certificate, 21% had a degree and less than 2% had a post-graduate degree. Training had been conducted on the DHA qualification, public service induction and maritime. Several employee wellness programmes were held.

There had been 25 fraud and corruption cases, resulting in five dismissals and one arrest. 19 cases were still under investigation. The cases mostly involved allegations of fraudulent birth registration and marriages, or allegations of corruption. There was one case of improper conduct, which was still under investigation.

Vetting for the 2012/13 reporting project continued. 200 security clearance forms had been issued and 98 received back from officials.

Finance and Supply Chain Management
Mr Singh, Director: Finance and Support, said that KwaZulu Natal had been allocated R19 122 500. Of this, R18 430 500 had been allocated to provincial offices; R348 000 to port control; and R344 000 to the Refugee Reception Office. As of 28 June 2013, R49 093 242 had been spent. The expenditure rate for the first quarter was supposed to be 25%, but as there were problems with goods and services, 51% of the funds had been spent. The province had collected revenue to the amount of R11 611 486.

Fleet Management
There were 123 vehicles in the province. 30 new vehicles had been received, and five were involved in accidents. There were 17 mobile offices in the province, and only one was dysfunctional.

Staff Engagements
Mr Matsaung said that the province interacted with staff through the monthly top provincial management meetings, quarterly provincial management meetings, monthly district management meetings, weekly staff meetings, and quarterly review meetings.

Achievements and Challenges
Mr Matsaung summarised the key achievements. Appointments of staff at level eight and below had seen greatly improved turnaround times. For the first quarter, 54 officials were appointed. This meant that Durban Harbour became fully functional. The province was nominated as the best suited province for hosting a conference on civil registration and vital registration for Ministers. The Supply Chain Management and payments function were successfully decentralised to the provinces from August 2012 and had been running for approximately a year. This had resulted in shortened turnaround times in terms  of the procurement process delivery period. The establishment was increased by 90 additional posts, enhancing service delivery.

Challenges included delays in procurement of office accommodation by DPW and a lack of proper accommodation for immigration services at the Durban Harbour. Constant engagement was needed with DPW to expedite the procurement of office accommodation. Although the number of LRB applications had decreased in the province, there were still many applications in Umkhanyakude and Zululand district municipalities. The planned response was to have continuous LRB-mop up outreaches and deployment of mobile offices in the area. The backlog of refugee IDs, passports and finalisation of asylum cases was impacting negatively on the Department’s commitment to asylum seeker management. Projects were to be set up for issuing refugee IDs and passports. There was a lack of inspectorate officials, which impacted negatively on the performance of immigration related functions fully. The posts were to be prioritised. The fleet operational budget was inadequate, as 30 additional cars were received with no budget increment for maintenance and repairs. In addition, he noted that the budget for the province was not adjusted for its large population size, which posed a challenge to the province. There was a lack of approved structures to deal with the decentralisation of finance, which made it difficult to comply with payment within 30 days as required by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Proper office infrastructure which was aligned to departmental specification was still a challenge.

Discussion
The Chairperson thanked the province for its long presentation, and commended the presenters for reporting back on issues that were raised during the oversight visit.

Ms Bothman asked why it had taken so long for the staffing problems that the Committee had noted during its oversight visit to be corrected.

Mr Matsaung responded that when the Committee had conducted oversight the previous year, there had not been funding for those posts, but in this year the province had allocated funding. Due to the lack f funding for this particular office, two officials would be moved from Golela to Kosi Bay until funding was formally allocated to Kosi Bay.

Ms Bothman objected to Mr Matsaung’s having said that “Members complained” and noted that they did not complain but rather had raised issues.

Mr Matsaung apologised, saying that for him, English was a “borrowed” language.

Ms Bothman said there was a need to have a system that would pick up when children were born and their births were not registered. She also suggested that DHA should establish a way to report those individuals who had not left the country before their visas expired to the relevant embassies. There was a need also for policy on the payment of volunteers. It was not fair to ask people to work without compensation.

Ms Bothman asked how the stakeholder forum was constituted, as this could have a bearing on its state of dysfunction.

Ms Nosipho Shandu, Zululand and Umkhanyakude District Manager: Operations, responded that KZN was in a unique situation regarding stakeholder forums . There was a programme being spearheaded by the Premier’s office, which aimed to ensure that all government officials and the private sector provided effective services, integration of services, coordination and accessibility of services. The participants met on a monthly basis and involved local, provincial and ward level government. The same members of this programme were also members of the stakeholder forum, so this meant that there was a lot of overlap and the Premier’s office programme had overshadowed the stakeholder forums .

Ms Bothman said that there should not be a target for prosecution of employers, as this assumed that employers would not comply.

Mr Matsaung responded that a target had been generated from the number of officials that the provincial department employed, so that each official could have an understanding of what was expected. The targets were only meant to motivate staff.

Ms Bothman said that there should be a discussion on policy stipulating the maximum number for refugees and asylum seekers. Currently, the system was open and South Africa accommodated all refugees, to the extent that it was running out of space and facilities, yet it still considered itself bound to accommodate more people.

Ms Bothman urged, in respect of those shortly to retire, that there should be a succession plan, to ensure that when people retired, their posts would be immediately filled.

Ms Bothman was impressed by the 60 posts that had been filled within three months. The Committee was always told that it was hard to fill posts, but this example showed that it was possible. Other provinces should copy the model of KZN and they no longer had any excuses for not filling posts.

Ms Bothman agreed that the formula for budget allocation to provinces, using their populations and size, needed further thought.

The Chairperson was also impressed that the KZN department had filled most of the posts in senior management, which had posed a problem in many provinces.

Ms D Mathebe (ANC) was also appreciative of the very comprehensive presentation. She was concerned that people came to ports of entry without proper documents because of LRB. It was incredibly difficult when the numbers of people in South Africa was not known.

Ms Tasha Hanekom, Ethekwini and Ugu District Manager: Operations, responded that immigration officials formed part of the LRB committees, so that if there was a question about origin, these committees could look at it immediately. The Department was also working to get biometric systems at ports of entry, but this was a long term process. Currently LRB applications were checked against the fingerprints of those who had been deported previously. The Department tried on various levels to ensure that LRB applicants were deserving and were citizens.

Ms Mathebe asked why there were so many uncollected IDs.

Mr Mike Modiba, Provincial Coordinator: KwaZulu Natal, responded that there were 47 141 uncollected IDs, and just under 15 000 were over six months old. The Department had taken a decision that they should not be sent back to Head Office because of the approaching elections.

Ms Mathebe asked how soon the Angolan cessation would commence.

Ms Nadine Balgobind, Refugee Reception Manager, KwaZulu Province, responded that the Angolan cessation deadline was 30 August 2013. However, this was dependent on several factors. Angolans were being given the opportunity to apply for alternate status within the Immigration Act, to apply for voluntary repatriation to Angola, or to remain as a refugee, after the approval of SCRA. When applying for alternative status they were required to obtain an Angolan passport, which was a long process due to security checks. For this reason, an extension may be necessary, but staff were still working toward meeting the deadline.

Ms Mathebe asked why men were overrepresented in management positions.

Mr Singh responded that the imbalance was 27 males to 18 females. As posts became available at a management level, women would be targeted. There were currently four posts that needed to be filled and women would be preferred for those posts. At lower levels, more men were required.

Ms Bothman asked for a breakdown of the languages that staff spoke. The Department should take a principled approach to this, in an effort to contribute to a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa.

A Departmental official replied that the two dominant languages in the province were English and isiZulu. Those were the languages used in DHA’s interactions with the public.

Ms Bothman asked if representatives from all language groups were employed.

Mr Groenewald pointed out that the DHA was not required to employ someone from every language group. It was necessary to look at the realities of the situation, which was that isiZulu, English, and then Afrikaans were the most widely spoken in the province. The Department of Arts and Culture was currently working on policy addressing this issue. There was no expectation that departments should employ people from all languages.

Ms Bothman responded that the Committee had a mandate to check that everyone was represented. She was not saying that there was an obligation on any department, but was rather urging that there should not be an automatic stereotype or preference for a certain language because of its dominance in the province. It may be that some people were excluded because they could not express themselves in a particular language and that should be avoided. The Department should engage on that issue.

The Chairperson said that as a Member of Parliament, Ms Bothman should look at policies and be aware of what was happening in the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture. That Committee was saying that each province should reflect the language of that population, depending on the dominant group. This issue would not be discussed further.

Western Cape Provincial Office
Mr Yusuf Simons, Provincial Manager: Western Cape (WC), briefed the Committee on the state of the province and on issues that had been in the media.

Health Facilities
Mr Simons said that challenges were being experienced with capacitated health facilities.  Some health facilities were reluctant to provide data on live births and data was received only after a two month delay. The connection to DHA systems was often slow and unstable. There were security risks at some of the facilities and the space allocated was not conducive to DHA needs. There was also a lack of space in some high volume facilities.

In future the province would be focusing on mobilising dedicated staff appointed at health facilities to visit clinics and would prioritise posts to capacitate high volume health facilities.

Lease Agreements
The Western Cape Province occupied 21 private properties and four state owned ones. There were a number of outstanding leases from DPW, which had already expired in 2011 or 2012, currently being occupied on only a month-to-month lease agreement. There were also a number of lease agreements for new facilities pending. The problem was that landlords were reluctant to do maintenance and repairs and the province was at risk of its offices being closed. The delayed DPW turnaround times were having a negative impact on provincial ability to plan and expand services. These problems had been escalated to the Directors-General.

Smart Card Readiness
The pilot offices for smart cards were Cape Town, Wynberg and Khayelitsha. These offices had concluded their skills audit, staff awareness, site refurbishment and installation of live capture booths.

Temporary Refugee Centre
The Refugee Reception Office was a temporary office which became operational at Customs House with effect from 2 July 2012. Process flows were aligned to accommodate the limited space there. The capacity at this Office had been crippled by accusations of corruption. Two registry clerk posts were filled, as well as six refugee status determination officer (RSDO) posts. However, the operations manager had been dismissed, the RSDO manager was given a precautionary transfer, the Head of Inspectorate was suspended, and six of the eight refugee reception officers were given precautionary suspensions. In response an interim management team was appointed in October 2012 to ensure effective operations, and twelve employees were seconded from local offices to assist.

Of 1 715 adjudications, 695 were granted (41%) and 1 020 were rejected (59%). 45 130 section 22 permits were extended, and 924 status reviews were conducted.

The Temporary Refugee Office in Customs House reported various incidents of violence during June and July 2013. Clients awaiting services broke down perimeter fencing, overpowered the Mofoko Security guards, entered and had vandalised the offices. The office had to be closed at various occasions. SAPS and Metro Police were called in to stabilise the situation using pepper spray and water cannons.

After subsequent investigation by DHA Counter Corruption and SAPS, the reasons for the violence were found to include irregular over booking of clients to visit the office for extensions. 17 000 clients were booked for the month of June 2013, instead of the normal volume of 4 000. The Mafoko guards were unable to control excessive crowds. Clients were jumping queues, whilst picketing against the closure of the Refugee Reception Centre caused stampedes, and criminal elements then also instigated violence deliberately, to pick pocket clients when the situation became unruly.

A number of mitigating strategies were implemented. He reiterated that an Interim Management Team was appointed in October 2012 to ensure effective operations and twelve employees were seconded from local offices to assist and stabilise. Seconded employees ranged from five Assistant Directors to supervisory level staff. All staff, including the RSDOs, were deployed to focus only on the extension of section 22 permits. The validity of section 22 permits was staggered over a period of three to six months to ensure that the normal intake of 4 000 per month would not be exceeded. Mafoko Security Company reviewed the posting of the 17 security guards, had replaced its supervisor and rotated the guards. The Department of Public Works had started installing a new fence to secure the perimeter and improve crowd control. The Deputy Director General: Human Resources had committed to appointing ten interns at the Refugee Centre for a one year term to alleviate the capacity shortages. 

The main challenges facing refugee offices in the Western Cape included the backlog in cases. The long queues related to appeal bookings that had been outstanding between 2008 until early 2011. Corruption remained a problem, with 14 cases registered, of which five disciplinary cases were in process. Two staff members had been dismissed. The space at the temporary facility was not conducive to service delivery, as it measured only 604 m² whereas the former Maitland Office had been 2290m². Finally, criminal agents operating around the Customs House perimeter were causing problems, and DHA received complaints from other tenants and neighboring businesses.

Mr Simons outlined the measures taken to address these challenges. Docufile was in the process of auditing RAB cases to determine the extent of the backlog, steps had been taken, as described, to stabilise the office after the July 2013 events, there was fast tracking of asylum seekers cases, staggering of daily appointments, training of seconded staff to fast track asylum cases, and processes and controls had been put in place for the Angolan Cessation Project.

Cape Town Harbour Modernization Project: Cowrie Place
The Cape Town Harbour Office was situated on the 5^th floor of the Customs House. The Office was situated outside of the Harbour perimeter and, for operational reasons, its location was reviewed. Cape Town and Durban Port Control Offices were identified as pilot sites for the Ports Modernisation Project to test integration of systems. The Port Modernisation Project was developed in line with the need for the establishment of an interagency forum comprising of border management stakeholders .

Cowrie Place, Duncan Road, and Cape Town Harbour were identified for establishment of the Government House. DHA took occupation of the Cowrie Place offices in March 2013 and portable electronic management and control systems (eMCS) were piloted. The South African Revenue Service (SARS) was appointed as project manager and developed a Project Charter for the refurbishment and development Government House in an integrated system. The refurbishment was set to start on 5 August 2013 and the Department envisaged completion during November 2013. Capacity had been increased with two control immigration and nine immigration officers.

Operations
During the 2012/ 2013 performance cycle the province achieved 62% of its Annual Performance Plan (APP) targets, on average. Where targets were not achieved, revised strategies had been developed. 

The establishment of stakeholders forums was not achieved because of the high political turnover in municipalities, and because some Municipal Managers referred DHA to other structures. As a way forward, municipalities indicating no interest in formalising stakeholder forums were omitted from 2013/2014 APP.

The province did not achieve the target for clients with Duplicate IDs to be contacted and their cases to be resolved within two days, as home visits did not yield good results. Head Office was in the process of developing an alternative strategy to deal with duplicate cases.

Vacancies remained unfilled. This was because of the dependency on Head Office for the processing and issuance of appointment letters. This function had since been devolved to the Provinces.

Final rejected asylum seekers were not handed to the Inspectorate and deported within 30 days, because of the High Court order brought by the organisation PASSOP against the Minister of Home Affairs.

Other targets not achieved included cases referred to Inspectorate being investigated and finalised within 30 days, and 100% payment of invoices within 30 days.

Of the projected 20 575 (25%) births to be registered within 30 days, the province registered 20 838 births. One additional health institution was successfully made operational for online birth registrations. The mop up programmes for LRB were partially achieved. The programmes in Atlantis had to be postponed due to staff shortages and the non-availability of functional mobile offices. In Eden six areas were identified, including Mossel Bay, but the latter was executed as a DHA High Impact outreach programme. Therefore only five areas could be noted as achieved.

Outreach programmes were completed in George, Mossel Bay, Bitou, the City of Cape Town, Saldanha Bay and Matzikama.

The province had a total of 16 957 uncollected IDs. Over 5 000 of these had been waiting for over six months. ID and registration campaigns had been conducted in partnership with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

In line with the target, a new stakeholder forum was successfully launched in Prince Albert municipality.

171 secondary schools were visited to collect ID applications from learners aged 16 and above. This was compared to the targeted 187. A total of 5 161 applications were taken in.

Mr Simons then detailed the targets for Immigration Services. 73% of cases were referred to immigration services were finalized within 28 days, 100% of detected undocumented foreigners were transferred to Lindela within 20 days, 86 transgressors of departmental legislation were charged, and 8 employers were charged. The target was for 10 cases of fraudulent marriages to be finalised, but only three were finalised.

A total of 6 699 applications for temporary residence were received. These were mostly from the United Kingdom, Germany, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, China and Angola. The majority (3 065) were visitors permits.

The Western Cape Priority Committee was established on 20 May 2013. This was established to strengthen working relationship between DHA and Provincial law enforcement agencies in the management of illegal foreigners. A joint operation took place on 21 May 2013 with the aim of tracing illegal foreigners running businesses in the Cape Town City Centre, Woodstock and the Cape Town Station Deck. SAPS and City of Cape Town Law enforcement participated in the operation.

The challenge experienced was that the opening of dockets between DHA and SAPS was not satisfactory, hence 14 illegal immigrants had to be released. Due to the large number of arrests prosecutors referred cases back for further investigation. Going forward, DHA staff were to be trained on the completion of dockets and how to brief prosecutors on immigration legislation.

Capacity Information
The province had an 8% vacancy rate, with 54 vacant funded posts. 12 posts had been advertised in the first quarter, and since the devolution of recruitment and selection processes in April 2013 the Province had managed to fill 23 posts. 21 staff members had terminated their service in that financial year. 30% of staff were Coloured; 59% Black; 11% White; and 0.1% Indian. 65% of the staff were female. 1.94% of staff were people with disabilities, and three new staff with disabilities had just been appointed.

The performance management development system was 95% complete and would be concluded by the first week in August 2013.

There were nine discipline management cases including three cases of gross dishonesty, and one had so far resulted in dismissal. There were also one case of unauthorised possession of state money, one case of dereliction of duties, three cases of contravening the Immigration Act; and one case of gross negligence. Four grievance cases were on hand, related to recruitment and selection.

The majority of staff (329) had a National Certificate. 87 had a degree; 63 had diplomas; and 16 had some form of post-graduate education.

Various training had been conducted in the first quarter. One officer graduated from the Development Programme at Wits University and three line managers graduated from the New Management Development Programme. Five officials were trained as Peer Educators. An additional 16 employees attended DHA Cadre training; and 21 employees were enrolled for the DHA qualification at Wits University. Training was also conducted on customer care, office management, managing absenteeism, junior development and management, and various other topics.

Eradication of Corruption
Mr Simons noted that Western Cape Counter Corruption had 23 cases on hand. The bulk of the cases (23) were from the refugee centre, despite its relatively small size. Nine cases came from the Metro. The provincial target of 80% of reported cases investigated was not achieved during the first quarter. Provincial Counter Corruption officials were deployed to Head Office to assist in the eradication of the investigation backlog.

Resources and Budget
The total voted expenditure was R165 157 000. R38 055 000 had been spent as of 30 June 2013. Compensation of employees was at less than the expected quarterly expenditure of 25%, due to delays in filling of vacancies. However, expenditure was expected to be aligned for the remaining quarters due to the decentralisation of the HR Recruitment and Selection functions for appointment of salary levels 3-8 in the province.

Spending on goods and services was reasonably high, due to the previous financial year travel invoices being paid in the current year. The main cost drivers for the province were fleet and travel. The province collected R18 444 804 in revenue.

Fleet Management
There were 87 vehicles in the province. 19 new vehicles had been received in February 2013. 91% of the vehicles were functional.

DHA and Old Mutual Improvement Initiative
The DHA and Old Mutual Improvement Initiative was underway at the Barrack Street Office. The idea was to exchange information as a means of mitigating risk, to enhance the quality of information and data, and to collaborate on other matters. For example, Old Mutual was to assist the Department with the development of a process to improve customer care and to build capacity at the Cape Town Large Office so as to deliver service excellence. Once the programme was piloted, it would be duplicated to other DHA Offices nationally.

Thus far, staff surveys had been run on issues impacting on their ability to deliver excellent services, workshops were held on the desired future, and quick wins had been identified.

The focus areas of the customer service improvement strategy were outlined. There were measures to address staff and supervisor training needs, to develop leadership and supervisory competencies and skills, to improve morale and motivation, and to raise the quality of performance management. Further, the strategy should ensure more efficient utilisation of resources, eliminate bottlenecks in communication, and enhance the look and feel of the office interior as well as raising the standards of security. DHA would ensure that norms  and standards were universally understood and implemented, ensure service levels were effectively monitored and controlled, improve flawed business processes, make more effective use of technology, and finally ensure compliance with the legal and regulatory environment.

De Doorns Programmes and Projects
Mr Simons noted that DHA facilitated high impact outreach programmes in remote rural areas that were not regularly serviced. DHA developed LRB Outreach Projects for each district and included them in the Western Cape’s Home Affairs Annual Performance Plan 2013/2014. Engagement would continue with local Agri-Forums and community representatives at District level to ensure buy in, optimise mobilisation, access to farms  and cooperation from farmers.

There were a number of short term initiatives running in the Cape Winelands and De Doorns area. They were serviced from the Worcester office, via Mobile Offices, once a week. The LRB mop-up project ran from 1 May until end June 2013, which involved farm to farm visits. An Outreach Project was provided on 25 and 26 April 2013 in Stofland, and Mobile Services were rendered from De Doorns. Various projects were also held for Mandela Day.

Discussion
Ms Bothman suggested that the presentations should be the same for each province, and thought that the format presented by KZN should be the template.

The Chairperson responded that some MPs preferred each province to be different, and said Ms Bothman should not confuse the officials.

Ms Bothman repeated earlier comments about language. In KZN there were three dominant languages, but despite that the organogram showed that there were Sotho speakers employed in the province. This was to be encouraged. Despite the fact that there were certain dominant languages in the province, that should not close out other languages.

Ms Bothman asked how births were picked up on in those health facilities that were not connected, an what was done about children not born in hospitals or clinics.

Ms E Ngoie, District Manager: Cape Winelands and Overberg, Western Cape Department of Home Affairs, responded that the DHA was trying to equip hospital officials with a car so that they could move around to clinics, to pick up on the children that were not registered at the hospitals.

Ms Bothman was concerned by discussion of “quick wins”, saying that this suggested that the province only worked on issues where easy successes were expected.

Mr Simons responded that the change management was a challenge. Quick wins were identified so that staff could see that progress was being made. These, however, would be accompanied by medium to long-term objectives.

Ms Mathebe wanted to know the total amount of asylum seekers, and asked if the numbers had increased.

Mr Mathebula, Director: Temporary Refugee Centre, responded that the current Refugee Reception Centre was temporary, so it rendered limited services, and reiterated that at the moment it was only handling the extension of permits. The Centre did not take in any newcomers. Once the backlog was cleared, the Centre would close permanently. The Centre was, however, also dealing with the Angolan cessation. The Western Cape had the highest volume of Angolans in the country. The Angolans were reluctant to come to the one-stop centre. Only 900 had so far been profiled, and out of these only 51 had applied for voluntary repatriation.

Ms Mathebe asked what the procedure was for birth registration in hospitals that were not connected.

Ms van der Berg, District Manager: West Coast, Western Cape Provincial Department of Home Affairs, responded that mobile units were sent out to rural areas. Nine mobile units were in rural areas visiting towns that were not connected in their hospitals.

Ms Mathebe asked why IDs not collected after six months were not destroyed.

Ms van der Berg responded that ID documents were not destroyed, but they were filed. It was uncollected passports that were destroyed.

The Chairperson suggested that it would be proper to have a discussion with the SAPS about criminal activities and agents at reception centres, so that police could be active in the area to ensure that there was no unruly behaviour taking place.

Mr Simons responded that the provincial department already did work with SAPS, but they could not make arrests until there was a criminal act. Instead, they tended to try to enforce the by-laws to prevent large volumes of people who had no business at the Refugee Reception Centre simply standing around there. The City, however, was not on board.

The Chairperson thanked the officials for their presentations and their hard work.

The meeting was adjourned.