Political Party Funding Act, Electoral Act proposed amendments; DHA, IEC, GPW on Committee recommendations

Meeting report

The Chairperson noted that Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson had passed and extended condolences to her friends and family. He acknowledged the attendance of the Minister and Deputy Minister.

Minister Aaron Motsoaledi allowed the Director General, GPW CEO, BMA Commissioner and IEC Commissioner to introduce their teams.

Political Party Funding Act, Electoral Act, Electoral Commission Act proposed amendments
The IEC Chief Executive for Party Funding, Mr George Mahlangu, presented the proposed administrative amendments to the Political Party Funding Act. Mr Sy Mamabolo IEC Chief Electoral Officer, and Mr Masego Sheburi, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, presented the proposed consequential amendments to the Electoral Act (see presentation).

Discussion
Mr A Roos (DA) noted that the proposals were sent to the Committee at short notice. There should be consequential amendments to allow independents to participate and the many changes had nothing to do with independent candidates. This will lengthen the public participation process, especially if you bring in clauses such as protecting party funds from garnishee orders which does not apply to independent candidates, but there is one party that it might apply to. There should be a focus on absolutely necessary changes to accommodate independent candidates.

Mr Y Tetyana (EFF) was concerned about the short notice of the proposal submission and the little attention being paid to independent candidates. There are other areas being raised and not the task at hand.

Ms A Khanyile (DA) agreed with Mr Roos and Mr Tetyana.

Ms T Legwase (ANC) suggested that the issue be referred to the party study groups for consultation.

Mr K Pillay (ANC) asked if the IEC had sought legal opinion on the proposed amendments. If there is a need for amendments, the IEC can present those changes now instead of only dealing with consequential amendments and coming back at a later stage to make these changes. The changes presented are not significantly contentious. The one about the ballot makes perfect sense as the IEC cannot provide region-specific ballots where voters cast their ballot abroad or who vote outside of the province of registration. Could the IEC clarify the other proposed amendments?

Mr B Bongo (ANC) said that the issue raised by Mr Roos is consequential as it has arisien outside the election process so it is essential that these issues be raised. The Committee must speedily move to the next level to present it to the National Assembly.

The Chairperson reminded the Committee that in the last two Committee meetings, the IEC promised to bring other election-related amendments that the Committee should consider. The IEC was asked to bring those amendments forward, including consequential amendments that the Constitutional Court judgment directed the Committee to consider so that one does not hamper the provincial and national elections process. It can be recalled that prior to the 2021 Local Government Elections, there were amendments brought to the Committee for the purpose of ensuring that the 2021 LGE was effective. The IEC is not bringing new matters outside of what is being dealt with. They were given the time to prepare certain amendments that need to be considered by the Committee.

IEC response
IEC Commissioner Mosotho Moepya made an example of the garnishee order which has affected about four parties but it would be very problematic for independent candidates. The Electoral Commission has a duty to raise concerns for the Committee to determine how best to deal with them. These are important to address before the upcoming elections. For those issues that were considered vexed, a legal opinion was obtained. Advocates are employed in the Commission and electoral experience used. Issues are weighed up not only based on legal opinions but they must combine that with practicality and the Committee’s guidance is invited.

The Chairperson noted the amendment from Chief Executive Officer to Chief Electoral Officer and independent representative instead of independent candidate.

Minister Motsoaledi explained that amending legislation can be tedious. This is why mistakes that need to be amended open an opportunity to correct other issues. We should not be wary of that unless there is something we do not understand. Bringing in independent representatives brings in new administration. It may not be obvious but these amendments will bring administrative efficiency. For instance, with garnishee orders, there are a certain number of political parties but an unknown number of independents which could be an administrative burden. Independents add an administrative burden in having to keep more accounts. These amendments will help the IEC be more efficient.

The Minister did not know what the ruling is about Ms Legwase’s proposal that these proposed amendments be taken to the political party study groups. However, he referred to the proposal that forfeited funds must be directed to the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA). How does it come to IEC? This matter is for the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster. When money is gotten from the proceeds of crime, it must be spent towards future crime prevention. How do these proceeds of crime end up with IEC, what does it have to do with proceeds of crime?

Mr Moepya explained that this forfeited money was originally allocated for funding a political party. However, if the party or independent representative does not meet the requirements for the allocation and forfeits the amount, the concern is not about which fund it should be directed to such as National Revenue Fund, CARA or Multiparty Democracy Fund (MPDF) as those could be looked at. This situation is possible but has not arisen yet. In the future, one could have forfeiture happening and there should be knowledge on where the forfeited funds must go.

Mr Mamabolo said there are prohibited contributions, especially to the MPDF. In the event the Commission establishes that money has been contributed from the proceeds of crime, the question is what ought to happen to that money. The presentation asked for guidance from the Committee and only gives some options. One could say it goes back to the MPDF for redistribution to all represented parties; it could go to the National Revenue Fund, which is the fiscal pot, to be redistributed across all state entities; or even to CARA. The Commission has not made a definitive decision; hence they present all those options.

The Minister did not understand as CARA is the account for money received as a result of court cases where crime was committed. There is a debate in the JCPS cluster about how this money is distributed to prevent future crime. It seems IEC wants that money to be in the MPDF. For what type of crime; are these crimes committed against IEC or general crime in the country? So every time there is a crime and asset forfeiture, the IEC must be entitled to that money to distribute to political parties?

The Chairperson encouraged the IEC to indicate when it would be meeting with ICASA and when the brief would be available to stay up to date on the consequential amendments processed by ICASA.

Mr Moepya clarified that the IEC is not proposing entitlement to all crime asset forfeiture, but forfeiture of money to do with party funding legislation and the funding of political parties only. It not funding related to crime. It may be a political party failing to comply with the requirements of the Party Funding Act by not submitting their financial statements for the money allocated. That money will only be allocated to them once they have cured their noncompliance to the Party Funding Act. If they do not, that money is liable to be forfeited. Although that forfeiture has not happened, it may happen in the future and it is prudent to look at to where that money should be taken. It is not money forfeited for other crimes, but noncompliance to the party funding legislation. The question is if that money should be returned to the fiscus when it is forfeited, or the CARA Fund that the Minister has mentioned.

Mr Moepya added that the meeting with ICASA is scheduled to take place the next day.

The Chairperson said the decision would be taken by the Committee on the amendments which they would note, consider and then approve the consequential amendments. They will deal with the points raised by the Minister that the Commission is attempting to clarify. The next session will deal with issues solicited and the amendments will be considered. Tomorrow’s meeting with ICASA will assist in exchanging notes on the consequential amendments. The next session will offer an understanding of the process that should be taken with other amendments linked to the presentation today. Matters arising will be dealt with once the Bill has been presented by the Minister.

Mr Tetyana agreed that the Committee should be given time to peruse the presentation and consider its concerns. He asked for the protection of the Chairperson as the Minister cannot say the Committee must raise what the Minister feels should be raised. The Chairperson should protect the Committee from such remarks; the Committee should freely raise their concerns. Issues raised by the Committee are relevant and should not be invalidated by the Minister of Home Affairs. The new items received a sufficient response from the IEC and there was no need for the Minister’s defensive response, especially on matters that are pertinent and being raised by numerous Members of Parliament.

The Chairperson said the Committee does not subject anyone to be vulnerable. Stakeholders are allowed to raise issues. They have been alerted that the Chairperson leaves the decision to the Committee. Interactions have always been done with respect. The Chairperson has listened to all concerns. The IEC indicated last year that it would bring other issues. There was no sense of Members being undermined.

Ms Telana asked what Parliamentary Legal Services are expected to do at this point.

Department of Home Affairs, GPW, IEC on Committee recommendations
Mr Mamabolo presented the IEC response to the Committee’s recommendations in the its Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR).

Ms Alinah Fosi, GPW Acting CEO, presented the Government Printing Works response.

Mr Tommy Makhode, DHA Director General, presented the DHA response to Committee recommendations
(see presentation).

Discussion
Mr Roos extended his condolences for the loss of Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson. With the IEC, we talk about serving notices to persons once their voting district registration has been moved. There have been persons who come to vote and their registration has moved with no communication and these are persons who had not changed their phone number. How does this process happen?

The IEC spoke about perceptions of fairness when printing with Government Printing Works. On what basis are this this a concern because we talk about a security principle which forces all government departments to print with GPW. What are the concerns considering that exam papers, passports and IDs are printed there?

Mr Roos noted the Security Printing Bill. What percentage of printing is done by GPW and what percentage is outsourced? Is it appropriate to put the Security Printing Bill on the table right now with the situation the GPW is in? If you look at it from the outside, there are efforts to do something. However, surely the GPW should get back on its feet first and be able to prove efficiency and security before putting legislation on the table that forces government departments to print with GPW. What is the view on that?

With the GPW data loss, did the CEO issue herself a warning letter? IT was issued with warning letters for the lack of backup. Those persons are responsible for that task inside GPW, but the accounting officer is accountable for ensuring that data does not get lost due to the consequences we see.

Has GPW submitted its 2022/23 financial statements to Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) by 31 May as required? Congratulations to Home Affairs on the kiosk which the DA had proposed before and was told it would be risky and people’s fingers would be cut off to get their ID out of the machine. What has been done to address those concerns? What documents would be available from these kiosks?

In terms of connectivity for Home Affairs, what does this mean in plain English? It mentions stages 2 and 6 loadshedding and everybody wants to know when this will be resolved. It does not make much sense to members of the public who are tuning in. In 2019 a private sector IT company was analyzing and assessing this. What is the CSIR process and how does it relate to SITA and the ICT provider process and when will this lack of connectivity be resolved?

There is dual redundancy, especially at major Home Affairs offices where one cannot stop the system from being offline as it is a daily problem. There always seems to be activity, action and budget thrown at it with no direction. The mobile units are welcomed and are something the Committee has regularly called for over the last four years.

The Committee recommendation was to link Home Affairs with Social Services. When you take a mobile unit to a school, if that child’s parent/guardian is not there then they cannot apply for any document. The response is about the Department of Basic Education, but it does not mention Social Services at all. Is there any interaction with Social Services to ensure the child can be assisted even in the absence of their parents, to ensure the child is assisted in getting their late registration of birth and getting their identity sorted out.

On the report about free DNA testing for indigent people, this is the same update as a month ago. Is there an actual update on this? This is almost a cut-and-paste of the same report. Has there been any progress on this free DNA testing? In the last week, the Department was successfully taken to court and the court looked at evidence provided by Lawyers for Human Rights and granted the child citizenship, yet Home Affairs insisted that the child have a DNA test. Issues escalated by Members of Parliament to the DHA experience blockages. This indicates that members of the public are experiencing blockages too. For example, marriage certificates have stopped being produced which is causing havoc. Is there a backlog in civic services? Is there a reason there are no responses and what can be done about this?

Mr Tetyana acknowledged that there has been improvement in DHA’s response to issues raised about the East London-Mdantsane and Mthatha offices. There are no stampedes in the East London and Mthatha offices. The report talks about achievements which are over 80% for late birth registrations. There is no clear report on mobile units; it is not specific on where these trucks are and where they are deployed. If a mobile unit goes out to service a village, they are told the truck has to connect to a server somewhere else. A few weeks ago a mobile unit was deployed, people came to collect their IDs and utilize the services, but they could not do so due to the lack of network connection. Is this true? If it is, is there no way to avert that situation? The understanding is that mobile trucks are equipped to carry out DHA services. How does it work? Is there no way of getting out of the SITA arrangement because it is always mentioned but has proven to fail? Can Home Affairs not ask to appoint a service provider that can assist, especially in rural areas where the network is inconsistent? Can the situation be averted, and the Department do it with its own capacity?

Ms Khanyile pointed to the school outreach program in the North West. How many schools were visited in the North West and does the IEC have a plan to roll out the program to the other eight provinces? If there is a plan, when will they do this as there are only four months left before the registration weekend scheduled for 18 and 19 November? With the Voter Management Device (VMD) being able to function in offline mode, how would this work? Would they be able to detect double voting? This had been discussed before after there were reports in 2019 when people voted more than once. Will these VMDs detect if someone has voted already? Does the IEC have a plan in place to fix the addresses of voters? In 2021 there were several voters who were incorrectly registered, and they decided not to vote as a result. They have indicated two dedicated runs that have been planned to test the functionality of the VMDs. Are they able to bring the VMD to be tested by the Portfolio Committee? In 2021 the same request was made and not fulfilled for unknown reasons. COVID could have been one of the reasons.

Has the GPW 2022/23 annual financial statements (AFS) been submitted to the Auditor-General? Was the eGazette made live at the end of May and what does this entail? Will the Western Cape gazette be included?

After that oversight done at Home Affairs with the queries that were not resolved about visas, there has been a positive response and several queries have been attended to. On working on Saturdays, how far are the engagements between the Department and unions and when will DHA finalize these engagements? With unabridged birth certificates being produced in eight weeks, is this a new timeline that will be complied with or how will it work? There are currently numerous parents who have applied for unabridged birth certificates, and it can take up to 12 years. When they have made contact with Members of Parliament will their issues be resolved?

With Home Affairs mobile units, there was an oversight visit in the Eastern Cape, where there were two mobile trucks available for the area. However, when they are sent out, they are unable to connect to the network. The Committee has been asking for the schedule of these mobile trucks so oversight can be done to assess if they are doing what they are supposed to do. So far, almost all these trucks experience challenges. Could DHA provide schedules for these mobile trucks so oversight can be conducted. When does the Department anticipate stopping issuing the green ID books?

Mr Pillay acknowledged and appreciated that the presentations showed improvements in what had been raised. With DHA, the previous audit findings indicate that those impairments were not repeated which is commendable. With irregular expenditure, what is the consequence management for that? SITA has reported that the bid is at an advanced stage, what is the meaning of “advanced stage”? Have they finalized or are they are about to test or pilot? With security cameras in Menlyn Mall offices, what is the plan for other Home Affairs offices to have these cameras?

Mr Pillay hoped that the Department will be able to finalize the resolutions with the unions, particularly on Saturdays. We all understand the importance of having a 7-day week of services because there are people who work Mondays to Fridays and genuinely cannot get to Home Affairs offices. How long before this DHA Bill comes to Parliament, considering these are the last few months of the Fourth Parliament. Can this be finalized before Parliament rises or not? We must reconfigure our priorities in terms of the time constraints. We must applaud Home Affairs for the success of 79.3% of births registered within 30 days. This reduces the late registration of births (LRBs) which can be challenging. What is the turnaround time for the unabridged certificates? How long will this take to be completed because they plan to digitize records to be able to allow this process to happen faster? The process is taking too long which might be a challenge and there is still six months in this year, why can the collections not be introduced within the next quarter. Do all the new 110 mobile units have backup power systems or generators because this is what the challenges are?

On GPW, the concern is the Security Printing Bill was due in 2019/20 and we are now in 2023 and nothing has changed. What is the time frame for this Bill? On the funded vacancies, you have to have resources and manpower to function optimally? When will that be finalized? Its ICT has only a 39% implementation of the recommendations, is there a reason for that? With the GPW loss of data, why are only 25% of the recommendations delivered?

On IEC, in offline mode, is it guaranteed that the voter’s registration will be confirmed as there are historical cases where voters were not registered? Is there SMS confirmation of the voter's registration? If not, they should investigate introducing registration confirmation to serve as proof on registration day. Have they looked at backup power or generators during loadshedding as IEC had mentioned having problems caused by loadshedding? IEC had a concern about printing ballots – if it is not by GPW, then who? Does outsourcing not bring further risk? The IEC must improve on communication and awareness. When do they envisage to start voter education and awareness around the Election Amendment Bill, particularly the inclusion of independents in the upcoming elections. When do they intend to start informing the public about procedures and requirements for those interested in contesting. The Western Cape is a province in South Africa and not a country of its own, so when undertaking services, all nine provinces should be catered to.

The Chairperson pointed to the Matatiele matter. What are the issues arising in that community? Could there be an update on this? The issue about SITA, in the last meeting there was an indication of correspondence between Ministries on the process to exempt Home Affairs or Security Cluster departments from using SITA. The Minister should shed light on the process that is underway. The matter of the long queues at Home Affairs offices, which was also raised in the last budget vote, perhaps DHA needs to upload concrete details on what has been planned to resolve the long queues which frustrate everyone. The provincial and national elections are coming, and people need ID documents. What has come from that discussion with CSIR?

The progress has been recorded moving from the 2021 Local Government Elections report that the IEC has tabled earlier in the Committee. There is progress in the work that has been undertaken but the matter of special votes. The Committee must take interest in this matter of registering residents who are not supposed to be special votes. What are the measures to mitigate the issues so Committee members are alerted to these measures? The matter of mobile trucks is an important matter that Members have raised, how will it be resolved? The Minister did state that he conducted an oversight in Acornhoek in Mpumalanga and citizens could not be assisted because the network could not run in that area. The Committee has ensured that the procurement of these mobile trucks is a success, but they must be user-friendly. This lack of network seems to be recurrent, and a concrete plan needs to be provided on how this will be dealt with. The modernized offices update states there are 8 or 9 identified modernized offices throughout the country that are under construction. However, the offices in Mokopane, Limpopo, there is no movement. What are the challenges and the progress in some of the highlighted offices? The status of the GPW masterplan shows progress in the work presented on infrastructure and the data loss problem since 2019. What is the stage in terms of implementation? What are the concrete plans to ensure that matter has been closed? On the long term contract, were there no ghost service providers and what are the plans to work around that? Can the stakeholders comment on the issues raised and the Minister will sum up.

IEC response
Mr Moepya said that printing ballot papers at GPW was proposed due to the perceived independence, not freeness and fairness. Ballot papers were printed with GPW and stopped when issues were raised by political parties in the Party Liaison Committee (PLC) where they were saying it could be that issues will arise given that GPW was an entity that had oversight from a number of the executive. We did not delve into the matter. After 1999, GPW needed to tender for ballots and they do not, that is why we have not proceeded. We have raised the issue. These are matters to be reflected on and the input of the Committee would be appreciated.

On the Voter Management Device (VMD), Members will recall that there was an issue raised about persons voting twice. These were reported to the police and people were asked to come forward about people who double voted. Those matters have been prosecuted and there has been no record of people voting twice. There were allegations, and some were found with a ballot that had not been cast after voting. There were reports but there was no confirmation that there was a widespread problem like that. Measures have been taken to introduce a layer of safety with the VMD that sends alerts when voters go into stations more than once.

Mr Mamabolo stated that section 24(a) of the Electoral Act has been amended by Parliament. You will no longer vote at a station where you are not registered, unless you pre-notify the Commission of you intention to vote elsewhere. The context of the allegation raised by Ms Khanyile rests upon people going to one station then another. That possibility no longer exists because of the 2021 amendment. That measure is additional to the introduction of the VMD. As the chairperson indicated, in an online mode it can detect if a vote has already been recorded elsewhere. Those are the two interventions that have been brought in since the 2019 elections.

With the VMD, it ordinarily works connected to an access point network (APN) through a live connection with the central database which means every transaction that is recorded immediately translates into the data centre database. However, the distribution of bandwidth is uneven across the country and connectivity is also influenced by other factors such as loadshedding. Service provider towers are affected by it as well. It is important to plan so that business operations can continue even when that happens. Hence the application has been built to work offline which means off-network, off-connectivity. When the VMD works offline, in its storage, it will hold all the transactions at the station and when the VMD is reconnected, those transactions are transferred to the central database. When the registration transaction is successful, there is an SMS confirmation, the same applies with email confirmation. On the Committee testing the VMD, this depends on how that can be structured but they can be availed. Approximately 40 000 of them have been procured. Samples can be provided to give an indication of how the registration happens and how they would function on election day; this can be arranged.

With the Democracy Week in schools, there are figures from last year: 2100 schools were reached, these being senior, primary and secondary schools and close to 200 000 learners were registered in that engagement. The mentioned North West event was the national launch of the campaign. It is being rolled out and started in April – there has been provincial launches and schools are being attended to. This year’s target is 4000 schools and details of the reach and level of registration will be provided. There are plans for an extensive education, civic and democracy education with balloting as a component. The hope is to start with that programme in July, but the stakeholder management program has started addressing these changes, the PLCs, provincial legislatures, government departments and this will be rolled out for the intended contestants, that is political parties and independents at the provincial level on top of the public education programme which will be launched in July.

The difficulty with the local offices and backup power is two-fold. A majority of them are located within municipal buildings as the municipality offers the IEC space to work but the infrastructure is owned by the municipality. Therefore the IEC is dependent on the backup infrastructure used by the municipality. Due to the uneven development in the country, more urban municipalities would have UPS and generators and similar amenities but less urban areas do not have those amenities, which affects operations. For provincial and national offices, provisions have been made for backup and UPS.

On correct registration addresses, it is a legal duty to ensure that the address bears a relationship with the ward in which that address is situated. If that relationship is absent, section 11 demands that it is corrected. It is the Commission’s responsibility to ensure that every person on the voter’s roll checks their details. The two registration weekends will endeavour to do that but it is mobilizing society to check their registration now and the modalities that the Commission avails for that purpose. The 3281 facility is available for that purpose, it is an SMS facility that is currently available, the website’s Am-I-Registered functionality is available, the voter portal is available, the app is available and when the campaign is launched, the call centre will be activated. To reduce the level of frustration on Election day, it is important that everyone checks that their registration address and ward are correctly linked and recorded.

Mr Sheburi explained that section 11 makes it mandatory for the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to change voter’s details if they are incorrect or they have changed. There are numerous ways in which details, especially the address, may not have a nexus with the ward in which a voter is registered. For example when a voter has not changed their address and not moved, it is possible because at intervals, the Municipal Demarcation Board redraws municipal ward boundaries and that brings changes that implicate the voters’ roll and registration status of a voter. In those instances, the CEO is duty-bound to make corrections. All those addresses are flagged, and visits are made to those addresses to establish if the address does not or does locate within that ward. If it does not, registration communication precedes big registration drives. We knock on doors, if the persons are there, we register them on the spot, if not, we leave pamphlets asking them to either visit a voting station or use the online modalities to update their registration details.

With continuous maintenance of the voters’ roll, section 12 letters are dispatched to all the addresses of the voters to alert them that the Chief Electoral Officer is aware of their registration no longer having a connection with the ward within which they are registered and requests them to update their registration to reflect the correct ward. People are afforded an opportunity to make representation to the CEO before a decision is taken to move them. This is done to honour the consideration that a person must be heard before decisions that affect their rights are taken. In instances where a response cannot be elicited from a voter, the Commission increasingly adopts a less intrusive remedy. This means that if there is a bi-election and efforts to reach that person have been in vain, the address of the voter is masked on the voter’s roll and if they arrive at the voting station on voting day, they must first supply their address as provided in the Municipal Electoral Act before they are allowed to participate in that election. In that way, the right of franchise and continued right of franchise of the voter are balanced and the Commission still honors its obligation to undertake free and fair elections by ensuring that persons who reside within a geographically determined space vote and determine outcomes in those areas. The VMD changes the logic of registration in that the address used is the address provided by the person to be defaulted to a segment of the voters’ roll.

GPW response
CEO Ms Fosi stated that GPW is the only government printer and core to its mandate is to ensure that secure state documents are produced. State security documents should not be delayed any further. Therefore, the Security Printing Bill process must be fast tracked for that mandate to be obtained, to protect the sovereignty of the country and sustain operations. It is also important that all efforts are put towards finalizing this Bill so the objectives can be obtained and the footprint can be expanded to other countries to replenish our revenue. Thus the draft legislative process needs to be finalized and assented to by the President. As a management collective, it is important to acknowledge and take collective responsibility of the challenges that are there. When inheriting an organization with challenges, it is important to put corrective measures and action plans in place to address the challenges in order of priority so that it can be managed using realistic plans.

Ms Fosi is under the impression that the platform is up to task. GPW has acknowledged some weaknesses and plans have been put in place to deal with the challenges of data loss and system crashes. The data loss and system crash is still subject to forensic investigation and the outcome will determine the way forward. There has been noticeable progress made thus far and those issues are being continually addressed. It does seem like it has taken too long to finalize the Bill but the consultation process was prolonged by the addition requested by the Office of the State Law Advisor when it indicated that there needs to be an expansion of the consultation to provinces and all the departments in the provinces had to be consulted to ensure the approach is inclusive. The process to consult provinces has not been easy but all provinces have been consulted, except North West and the Western Cape. There is also a challenge with drafters. The key drafter in Home Affairs has since transferred to the Department of Justice and now the capacity is strained because of the workload in Home Affairs. Alternatives are being explored; there has been the appointment of director of legal services in GPW and they work closely with the Home Affairs legal unit. There will be a way forward to ensure that the Bill is concluded so that it can be enacted. With the Ministerial Review Panel (MRP) recommendations, when the report was drafted, they were still at 25%. To show that there is progress, they are currently at 45% and plan to finalize implementation of all MRP recommendations by the end of this financial year. With the masterplan, the original plan was that 2021/22 should have been for the building but engagements with DPWI did not have the desired outcome and there were unnecessary delays which led to the decision to write to DPWI to request exemption from its process and to use Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to assist, which has been granted The MOU between DPWI and DBSA has been concluded and between DHA and DBSA on the new headquarters building. It is being extended so it can cover the masterplan building as well. There is a draft project execution plan being finalized in consultation with DBSA. A structural engineer has been appointed to design the concept for the bridge which will interconnect the current pavilion to the new headquarters and DBSA is assisting with that. A town planner has also been appointed to investigate the servitude being approved and consolidation of land for occupancy. That has been done using the process of registering with the city council. All the outstanding documents from DPWI need to be sent to GPW and DBSA to move ahead. There is a 36-month turnaround on the project execution plan. This will be a state-of-the-art facility that will house all the equipment to enable the expansion of our footprint, knowing that more countries can be catered for.

The Chairperson advised that speakers could indicate if they needed time to avoid giving a vague response with uncertain information.

Ms Fosi asked for time to gather information that would be presented to the Committee.

Mr Ian van der Merwe, GPW CFO, explained that the 2022/23 AFS was submitted on 31 May and GPW received confirmation from AGSA. There have been no service providers paid to do this. Invoices are certified to avoid such occurrences.

Mr Kgomotso Thamaga, GPW Director: ICT, noted that the eGazette system was in production, but not yet public facing. There are a range of tests to check that the system is robust and has no other issues once made public. The process is expected to end in the next week or so.

Ms Michelle Modise, GPW Chief Director: Human Resources, clarified that the GPW structure was reviewed and approved and a five-year plan developed in which all those vacancies will be filled. As they are being filled, there are people who leave the organization and need replacement. 416 new positions were created in the structure and 186 are currently in circulation at a different level of the recruitment process. There have been efforts to capacitate the IT department with 35 positions, 14 of which are people who have been employed and 21 are at an advanced stage of recruitment.

The Chairperson asked that GPW answer in writing the matters raised by Mr Roos to the CFO.

Home Affairs response
Mr Makhode said that the CSIR partnership is no longer intentional as an MOU has been signed with them to give effect to this agreement. There are 15 sites selected to pilot alternative connectivity to avoid anunstable network. Five of these are in the process of migrating from SITA to a network that CSIR is working on which will include offices in rural and urban areas, high, low and medium volume offices. Examples of high-volume offices are Wynberg in the Western Cape, Umgeni in KZN, Soshanguve in Gauteng, Potchestroom in the North West and Menlyn. In addition to these, where the connectivity is being untangled from SITA to CSIR, the diagnostic assessment will continue on Hoe Affairs offices to assess connectivity issues. The agreement on selection of offices and teams has been signed. This work is currently underway.

There are 15 mobile trucks deployed in the Eastern Cape which are divided into four regions. Region 1 is OR Tambo and Alfred Nzo Districts which has six trucks and is led by Khanyile Diko. Region 2: Buffalo City Metro and Amathole has four and is led by Thobela Nongemane. Region 3: Nelson Mandela Metro and Sarah Baartman has two mobile trucks and is led by Thembinkosi Mnunu. Region 4: Chris Hani has three mobiles and is led by Mzoli Yawa. The plans for the deployment of mobile trucks were shared with the Committee and the same can be done to give a schedule of the mobiles.

With the DHA Bill, a draft Bill has been received from the drafter on 31 May and inputs are currently being reviewed and the process should start according to the timeline and be finalised by 31 March 2024.

The mobile trucks have generators, but it is difficult to run these with Stage 5 and 6 loadshedding. With the infrastructure-related concerns about Matatiele, the service provider is due to start during the course of this week. There were delays caused by the repairs being done by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI). A service provider will be appointed following the challenges experienced with DPWI. The site is still being prepared nonetheless to provide services in Matatiele and relocate officials from that office, which is small and shared with the Department of Justice. With the modernized offices in Mokopane and Thohoyandou, DPWI has to finalize two variation orders, one for Thohoyandou and Mokopane. These projects were disrupted by protest actions by teams demanding a 30% set aside and some of the service providers have gone beyond the budget and are waiting for DPWI advice , but it is being dealt with. For example, Mokopane already has a generator that will be tested while they wait for connection to the grid. It will also be installed in Thohoyandou. That office will be completed by 31 December 2023. Taung has been presenting challenges. All these offices have been visited and DPWI has been engaged to look at interventions in Taung where there has been slow progress

On the irregular expenditure consequence management, there are several disciplinary hearings underway. For the irregular expenditure in IT, the director has been dismissed. There is a backlog for unabridged certificates. The hope is to finalise the 13 000 of 219 000 unabridged certificates by the end of this quarter.

Mr Mavuso replied that the kiosk will be able to do smart card and passport applications, deal with reprints for legal documents through a process that authenticates the applicant using their fingerprint. The photo ensures there is no photo swapping as the camera has facial recognition. The CSIR option will allow for the network architecture review and alternative network connectivity is an option if the outcome is positive. Part of the problem with working with Social Services is that social workers sometime offer incorrect information which results in delays. On the matter of Elliotdale, on 26 May 2023 a mobile truck was deployed but it needed to connect to two offices when it arrived so it would be able to issue smart cards, all the IDs pointed to Willowvale were successfully collected. Those pointed to Butterworth suffered from network challenges which is being rectified. All the mobile trucks have built in generators. A change request was done for the collection challenge, but the developers have a schedule of the work they have to do, and this work has been added there to give citizens competent services.

Deputy Minister’s remarks
Mr Njabulo Nzuza clarified that there is no MOU with social services but there will be engagements moving forward. The current MOUs are with the Departments of Health and Education. The mobile units were affected by loadshedding; it becomes difficult because they still need to connect via towers which fail to function during loadshedding. Alternatives such as satellites are being looked into. The mobile units need to be constantly upgraded, similar to any other system. There are improvements with early birth registration and the aim is to register all births within 30 days. The plans were disturbed by self-financing activities whereby most health facilities depended on funds drawn from self-funding activities which were affected by COVID. Post-Covid there has been improvement and some of those funds will be used for self-financing which will increase the footprint in health services. There will be no more UBCs requested because all issued certificates are now unabridged. Once the 13 000 backlog is dealt with, there will be no future increment.

Minister’s remarks
There had to be a MOU with the Department of Education because schools are being visited and their programme disrupted. The Department of Health MOU is necessary for the opening of Home Affairs offices inside hospitals. The relationship with Social Development varies as social circumstances of children differ. Home Affairs cannot issue an ID where the children’s parents/guardian have not been visited by social workers. This does not need an MOU. The same is applicable for adopted children where social services conduct adoptions.

It is common knowledge that there is no government department that is satisfied with SITA connectivity, it is a perennial problem and Home Affairs is the biggest victim as they heavily depend on connectivity. When asking to be exempted, the whole JSPS cluster believed that their operations would not be possible under SITA because of the delays.

The IEC should be allowed to print their documents from any institution outside government, it is better to remain that way. As nothing went wrong over the past 29 years, the system should be kept in place until the issues with independent representatives and the new approach to elections have been stabilized.

With unabridged birth certificates (UBC), it was reported that from 2013 only unabridged birth certificates would be issued with all the parents’ details. With the prevalence of teenage pregnancy, there are instances where abridged certificates are printed by default because the father’s details are missing due to the country’s socioeconomic conditions which is a sensitive matter.

The Chairperson thanked everyone for the engagements on the Committee recommendations provided to them since 2019 to date. He noted the Minister’s request to keep printing systems as they are. They will have to wait for the Security Printing Bill that GPW will present to the Committee and all concerns raised have been noted.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting.