Impact of State of Nation Address on Home Affairs

Home Affairs

17 February 2015
Chairperson: Mr B Mashile (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee met briefly to discuss the impact of the 2015 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on the work of the Committee.

The Content Advisor of the Committee outlined some of the issues which the President had addressed in the SONAs of 2014 and 2015. In his 2014 speech, the President had listed some matters which he had hoped the Department would have addressed by the end of the year, and he had done the same in his 2015 nation address. The Content Advisor focused more on the six main points mentioned by the President in 2015 -- the attraction of foreign skills, the establishment of a Border Management Agency (BMA), further improving access to identity documents, eradicating racism and all related intolerance, the plan to ignite growth and create jobs, and the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee.

The determination of which skills to attract was identified through the yearly site visits which were attended by all Members of the Committee, but in order for this to happen, some measures had to be put in place. Firstly, there needed to be cooperation between entities. In this case, the Department of Home Affairs would work with the South African Qualifications Authority and continue to implement the Visa Facilitation Service. The Border Management Agency had been established for safety reasons and to ensure that foreigners entering South Africa had a positive view of the country.

The issue of fraud and corruption had been a problem for many years in the Department of Home Affairs. The introduction of Smart Cards would help prevent corruption and fast-track application processes, especially now that the government would be working with local banks to implement a new system. The Department of Home Affairs played an important role in conferring a sense of identity in South Africa through the provision of documents and involving communities in government, using structures such as stakeholder forums.

The department’s role in creating jobs was to ensure that documentation used to apply for work was easily accessible, and to improve processes so that it took less time to have one’s identity document/passport delivered. A five-point plan had been identified to help attract scarce skills. Campaigns would be conducted to help improve the attitude of officials and the public's attitude towards Home Affairs as a department. There would also be an improvement in technologies, such as ICT infrastructure and broadband for network capacity. The Interministerial Committee, which consisted of eight Ministers from different ministries, had also been introduced to coordinate and oversee the work of state organs involved in fighting and combating the sources of corruption in the public and private sectors.

With the new matters at hand, the President had also reminded the Department that there were programmes which had not been fully implemented thus far. These included the Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Service Delivery, creating decent work -- especially for the youth -- regional integration and economic growth, and the building of understanding, tolerance and reconciliation. Some of these programmes could not be assessed yet because their reports had not been published. This made it very difficult to move on to the next step while the previous one had not been implemented. Other important responsibilities of the Department were to establish initiatives for internships, start learnership programmes and provide students with proper documentation that would allow them to write their exams.

The Committee raised questions about the implementation of programmes, and some Members were concerned as to why the Department did not attend the briefing to explain the programmes and how they planned to implement them. There was confusion about what the report was for, and how it should be used to make the Department accountable, what skills South Africa was trying to attract and, among other things, would the Department be able to attract the skills on their own? The Content Advisor made it clear to the Committee that many of the policies mentioned in the report were merely considerations and had not been implemented yet.

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed the Members back from their holidays, as this was their first Committee meeting for the year. He mentioned the activities that had taken place in the last few weeks, which included an oversight visit for which they had drafted a report, and said that all members should already have received the report. Thef strategic workshop had been a success and the stakeholders who were involved in the workshop had also added value through their input. The only task now was to finalise the report of the workshop. The appointment of a Director for the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) would also have to be discussed in their upcoming meetings.

Dr C Mulder (FF+) had excused himself from the meeting, and Ms N Mnisi (ANC) would be arriving late for the meeting due to her missing her flight in Johannesburg.

Mr M Hoosen (DA) said Mr A Figlan (DA) would not be attending due to a clash of meetings.

The Chairperson said that Mr Adam Salmon, who held the position of both Researcher and Content Advisor, had been appointed as the Committee’s permanent Content Advisor. He would no longer fill the position of Researcher.
 

Briefing by the Content Advisor

Mr Salmon said the brief would cover areas of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) which directly affected the work of the Committee. The SONA had made mention of four of the Department's related initiatives, key policies that would be implemented as well as other developments that affected the performance of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The six main areas which remained important to the Department were:

  • the attraction of foreign skills;
  • the establishment of a Border Management Agency (BMA);
  • to further improve access to identity documents;
  • to eradicate racism and all related intolerance;
  • the plan to ignite growth and create jobs;
  • the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee.

 

The President had stressed the importance of the immigration policy and regulation as a way of attracting foreign skills and promoting tourism, which compels the DHA to have engagements with business, labour, government and academic stakeholders. This was to ensure that measures to secure the country's borders did not have a negative impact on the economic imperatives to grow the economy with foreign skills and tourism. In order for this to take place, certain measures had to be put in place. They would have to be formulated according to the best practice for attracting skills, also including regulations for the family of skilled migrants, such as allowing employment for their spouses. The DHA had plans to formulate a draft white paper on migration for approval by the Cabinet in 2015/16.

Also required as part of the migration policy, was a yearly intergovernmental consultative process of publishing a critical skills list of professions which qualify for easier application processes. The Visa Facilitation Service initiated by the DHA in 2014 needed to improve on service delivery and should be empowered to collaborate with other government entities, such as the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), to make applications as effortless as possible.

Measures to prevent trafficking and smuggling of children would be addressed through new policies that would require permission from the child's parents in the form of a birth certificate, a passport and a written permission letter from both parents. Another factor which was of concern for immigration regulations was the process of blacklisting persons who had overstayed their visas through no fault of their own, but due to delays by the DHA.

On the issue of establishing a BMA, the role of various departments in improving border security and ensuring ease of tourism and skilled migration would need to be addressed as part of the establishment of the BMA, as well as the broader migration policy. The role of the MBA included planning Refugee Reception Centres near to land borders. Concerns of racism and intolerance would need to be diligently addressed at ports of entry, as this was where the first impressions of South Africa were encountered by many foreign tourists and investors.

Deadlines for the establishment of a BMA had been given as follows: the BMA feasibility study was due for completion in December 2014; the BMA Bill must be approved by December 2015; legislation must be promulgated by December 2015/16; and the BMA must be fully established and in operation by December 2016/17.

The President had approved collaboration between the DHA and banks to expand the capacity for dealing with applications for Smart Identity Cards. This would allow banks access to the DHA Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to prevent fraud. The established biometric technology, along with a digital camera and access to DHA software, would potentially allow banks to extend the current footprint of Smart Card Application points. The new collaboration would also prevent fraud and corruption in both the public and private sector, and grants and services would be delivered to the right people.

Efforts to eradicate racism in South Africa continue, as emphasis has been placed by the President on this issue for a number of years in the SONA. The DHA plays an important role in conferring a sense of identity in South Africa through the provision of documents and involving communities in government, using structures such as stakeholder forums. The Department also serves as the first encounter of many travelers to our country, and thus plays a key role in upholding the country's reputation. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) would also need to regain its reputation in order to restore its otherwise commendable reputation and ability to unite citizens in a common sense of shared democracy.

The DHA’s role in creating jobs could be facilitated through the fast tracking of processes. The need to source scarce skills applied to five points of the plan -- the agricultural sector, mineral beneficiation, small to medium enterprises, encouraging investors and the Industrial Policy Action Plan. A positive attitude would need to be instilled through training campaigns, and in its role of preparing and facilitating lists of needed skills, the DHA must pay particular attention to these sectors as growth and job drivers. The DHA’s other role was to address energy concerns by improving energy efficiency in over 400 service points. The jobs plan pointed at the need to reform and boost the role of the state-owned companies and Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure for broadband roll out. The role of the ICT infrastructure is spurred on and improved by the additional network capacity and infrastructure needed by the DHA and Government Printing Works (GPW) for its roll out of live capture and production of Smart IDs and Passports.

Corruption prevention had also been a key theme in the last few years of the SONA. The Interministerial Committee was chaired by Minister Radebe in the Presidency, and those that also sat on the committee were Minister Masutha, in Justice and Correctional Services; Minister Mahlobo, in State Security; Police Minister Nhleko; Cooperative Governance Minister Gordhan; Public Service and Administration Minister Chabane, Home Affairs Minister Gigaba; Finance Minister Nene; and Social Development Minister Dlamini. The purpose of the committee was to coordinate and oversee the work of the state organs aimed at fighting and combating the sources of corruption in the public and private sectors. The “Back to Basics” programme had also been launched to promote good governance and effective administration through cutting wastage, spending public funds efficiently, and ensuring transparency and accountability in municipalities.

The President had also raised issues where some progress should have been made by the Department, including the Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Service Delivery, creating decent work -- especially for the youth -- regional integration and economic growth,   and the building of understanding, tolerance and reconciliation.

The Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Service Delivery was led by Minister Pravin Gordhan. Progress could not yet be assessed since the latest performance information had not been published. In immigration services, the introduction of private the Visa Facilitation Service (VFS) was aimed at improving turnaround times for visa applications. Appointments are meant to take place within five days of registering an application on the new online booking system. There were also reports of it taking four months for a basic tourist visa application to be approved.

A youth employment tax incentive had been introduced in December 2013, but experts say it is too soon to gauge the impact of the incentive as compared to jobs that were already available and as compared to the likelihood of persons over the age of 29 getting employment. Amongst the other obvious responsibilities of expanding its initiatives and having internships, the DHA was responsible for providing documents that allowed students to write their exams and find employment. The progress on learnerships would need to be monitored against future annual reports.

Regional integration was important for economic growth due to much of South Africa's trade occurring in Southern Africa. Regional integration had progressed on legal matters, environmental management, employment and labour, and regional infrastructure development, with Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocols being signed by the heads members of states, including South Africa, in August 2014. Bureaucratic cooperation in SADC had been weak in the absence of a political will to drive such cooperation. The DHA had a role to play in building understanding by improving the conduct of its employees and using its countrywide stakeholder forums to counter negative perceptions.

Discussion
Mr M Hoosen (DA) asked what the role of the Committee would be on the matters highlighted in the SONA. Were they to implement matters, or was it just for the sake of knowing the activities of the Department?

The Chairperson replied that the report made by the Content Advisor listed the matters that affected the DHA. The report was only an interpretation of the SONA from Mr Salmon’s point of view. Members were allowed to add matters in the report which they felt Mr Salmon had not addressed that were also part of the SONA that affected the DHA.

Mr Hoosen said that he appreciated Mr Salmon’s report, but he would have liked the DHA also to have submitted a report detailing how they planned to implement the matters, what their role in the matters was, and whether they thought adjustments should be made on the policies which they had to implement. The establishment of the BMA had not been clear and most of what they knew regarding the Agency was from the media. The Minister should also have been present to brief the Committee on the progress made with the BMA. He was relieved to hear about the introduction of Smart IDs, because it would surely help to reduce queues, but he did not understand why the Government Printing Works (GPW) had to change into a state-owned enterprise, because it had been performing well under the guidance of the Department.

The Chairperson said the strategic workshop that had taken place a couple of weeks back had addressed the issues that Mr Hoosen was concerned about. He asked the Committee Secretary to compile a report outlining the activities of the workshop and the important matters which had been raised. The GPW was a self-generating income organisation that invested its profits back into the company. It would not be profit driven if they decided to turn it into a state-owned enterprise. He reminded the Committee that they were only legislation makers and not implementers. They could not dictate how the Department planned on carrying out its tasks, but they could advise on which type of implementation was most appropriate for the legislation.

Ms S Nkomo (IFP) requested that the DHA and relevant stakeholders be summoned to explain why they had not yet made progress on matters raised in the SONA 2014. The fact that the SONA 2014 been made only eight months ago should not be an excuse for not delivering on what the Department had promised. Committee members should be given the platform to be harsh on individuals who could not account for work which they had not done. There was a great need to deal with these sensitive issues because it was what democracy is about. She also said the areas which had been identified by the President needed to be marked for future site visits, and there should also be on-going processes of site visitations.

The Chairperson said the matters in the report were only for the purpose of informing Members about the activities of the Department for the year. They would start with oversight once the programmes had been implemented and running, therefore they should use it as a guide for future reference, when they wanted to know what each programme was designed to do.

Ms T Kenye (ANC) asked if it was possible to have a detailed report on the challenges that were found within each programme, which prevented them from being properly implemented.

Ms D Raphuti (ANC) said she would like the service delivery report to be emailed to the Committee as soon as possible -- before the Inter-Ministerial Committee briefed them on the work they had done with the DHA.

Mr D Gumede (ANC) said the report was fairly accurate, and asked which skills South Africa was trying to attract. The issue of immigration should be looked into carefully, with special attention being given to matters concerning trafficking and the smuggling of children. In most countries, if not all, the citizens of that country were protected in such a way that foreigners were not allowed to own businesses without work permits, but South Africa had not been able to tackle this issue.

The Chairperson said certain issues in the report had to be looked at again. He suggested that the last sentence on page seven in paragraph three should be in quotes -- it would mislead people because the sentence was a direct quotation from a policy. Had the Department started implementing the policy that allowed family members of work permit applicants with desired skills, to be granted work permits as well.

Mr Salmon replied that the permit for spouses/family members was another way of trying to attract people with desired skills into the country. Applicants with the desired skills were less likely to migrate if their spouse/family members could not be given permits as well. Before the report goes public, he would change the paragraph and mention that this was only a consideration and it had not yet been implemented.

The GPW was not profit driven. All the money that it made was re-invested back into the entity to expand and operate functionally. The Committee had requested the DHA to give a written reply at a later stage, once the Committee has gone through all the programmes that should have been implemented after the SONA 2014. There were delays in the process of applying for a visa -- normally it would take five working days before receiving one’s appointment for an interview, but there were delays of up to 60 days. The government had listed some of the skills that were needed, but that also changed over-time. The site visits helped with determining which skills needed to be attracted

The Chairperson said the Members should expect all the reports within the next week to update themselves on the work of the Department and what had been done thus far.

Mr Hoosen said the Department would not able to attract foreign skills on its own -- it would need to collaborate with other departments to carry this function out.

The Chairperson replied that Members should engage that issue with the Department.

The meeting was adjourned.
 

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