Home Affairs Annual Performance Plan 2023/24; BMA progress report; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Chairperson opening remarks
On behalf of the Committee, the Chairperson conveyed her condolences to the family, friends and comrades of Tina Joemat-Pettersson who met her untimely death on 5 June 2023. She served as the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police. May her soul rest in peace.

In addition to the DHA APP, the Committee had planned to discuss the Correctional Services APP and budget but the Committee was requested to defer the presentation for a later time. The Committee would be briefed on the DHA APP and budget and an additional presentation on BMA.

Deputy Minister opening remarks
Home Affairs Deputy Minister, Mr Njabulo Nzuza said DHA appreciated the opportunity to present and account to the Committee. DHA would present its budget for 2023/24 to 2025/26, the immediate commitments arising from the 2023 State of the Nation Address (SONA), key developments and critical success factors. DHA was currently registering BMA’s progress, challenges faced and its plans to address those challenges.

Department of Home Affairs 2023/24 Annual Performance Plan & Budget
Mr Tommy Makhode, Director-General, DHA, said the Department would present to the APP priorities and targets for 2023/24, budget for 2023/24 to 2025/26 and additional information as requested in the letter directed to the Minister of Home Affairs on 28 April 2023.

Highlighting key developments and critical success factors for 2023/24, he said the Digitisation programme to modernise civic services as announced by the President in the 2022 SONA had commenced in 2023/24 and would digitise about 36 million birth records. The Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) rollout to 72 Ports of Entry (POE) would be completed in 2023/24. DHA developed an implementation plan to deal with the Vulindlela Task Team policy and process recommendations. To deal with DHA office long queues, the DHA Menlyn office was opened in Menlyn Shopping Mall in Pretoria in March 2023 and more offices would be opened in other malls. BABS has been rolled out to all 200 modernised offices. DHA is in the process of procuring another 100 mobile offices to cover the 778 visiting points to augment the DHA model access and strategy.

On provincial performance achievements, the provinces achieved 80% of their APP targets for 2022/23. The targets achieved dealt with birth registrations, smart ID cards issued to citizens, DLA-led law enforcement inspections, charged employees detected to be in contravention of the Immigration Act, charged transgressors detected to be in contravention of the Immigration Act, direct deportations concluded within 30 calendar days, transfers to Lindela within 20 calendar days, detected fraudulent marriages and marriage of convenience cases finalised. Unachieved targets were payment of invoices within 30 days and deaths registered within 72 hours. Several branches would have a change in their targets in 2023/24.

On operational challenges, load-shedding frequencies impact the sustainability of the generator and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) functionality. Generators and UPSs were prone to frequent breakage due to the extended periods of load shedding. System interruptions due to load-shedding and cable theft impacted DHA ability to render a stable, consistent and effective service. Other challenges were queue management, accessibility of DHA services, communication, and corruption.

Mr Gordon Hollamby, DHA CFO, said the MTEF indicative allocations for DHA was a departmental baseline of R9.3 billion in 2023/24 with a baseline increase of R1.1 billion and adjustments to conditional grants of R347 million. In 2025/26, DHA would have a departmental baseline of R10.1 billion with a baseline increase of R446 million and adjustments to conditional grants of R375 million. In an overview of the expenditure of 2022/23 provincial budgets, provinces spent 99% of the total budget. That level of expenditure as it showed that the provinces have the capacity to spend. A total of R2.2 billion was allocated to the provinces.

DHA has not incurred any unauthorised expenditure in the last ten financial years. In 2022/23, DHA incurred an unaudited irregular expenditure amounting to R32.7 million and an unaudited fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R30 000. The unaudited closing balances for irregular expenditures and fruitless and wasteful expenditure were R582 million and R93 000 respectively. DHA did not disclose material losses through criminal conduct in its financial statements.

(See the presentation for more details)

Border Management Authority
Dr Mike Masiapato, BMA Commissioner, said the presentation was to inform the Committee about the interventions on BMA service delivery challenges, success and way forward. BMA’s work was targeted primarily at its staff integration and capacitation. Highlighting the staff integration model, BMA took 1 200 employees from DHA, 339 employees from Department of Health (DOH), 14 employees from Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), and 372 employees from Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development (DALRRD) and employed them permanently in BMA.

Highlighting its successes since its establishment, BMA deployed border guards managed to confiscate 2 236kg of non-complying regulated agricultural products, 4 120 pairs of counterfeit shoes; eight bars of copper; and 11 20 litre containers of diesel. The border guards further managed to intercept 55 stolen vehicles destined to exit the country illegally; intercept 24 340 undocumented migrants entering the country illegally, and recover nine firearms, four magazines and 14.65 rounds of live ammunition.

BMA's main challenge was budgetary in nature. BMA received R1.3 billion from various departments in 2023/24. While BMA requested R2.6 billion from Treasury, it only received R250 million.

Its service delivery challenges were noted as being:
- BMA had most of its corporate services outsourced to DHA and regulated through a shared service agreement
- BMA's budget-constrained ability to deploy relevant technology such as drones, sensors, and scanners for deployment at the POE.
- BMA had a constrained staff complement for deployment in its 72 POEs.
- Port Health was only present in 37 ports and there were only 14 staff members for biosecurity nationally. BMA was unable to perform its border control/access control functions across all POEs, hence the assistance from South African Police Service (SAPS) members (see document).

Discussion
Ms N Ndongeni (ANC, Eastern Cape) asked if DHA had implemented measures to protect whistleblowers reporting corruption-related incidents committed by corrupt government officials. What was DHA doing to positively implement the necessary changes highlighted in the outcome of the 2021/22 customer satisfaction survey? What was the current staff morale within DHA and what was done to improve it? What plans did DHA have to mitigate the budgetary pressure caused especially by vehicles and infrastructure?

Mr R Badenhorst (DA, Western Cape) said National Treasury 2022/2023 Quarter 3 expenditure report submitted to the Standing Committee on Appropriations and the presentation to the Portfolio Committee of Home Affairs on 28 February 2023 indicated an adjusted budget of R10.796 billion while the estimates of national expenditure for 2023 contradicted this by stating R11.96 billion. Could DHA explain the discrepancy?

Prior to the COVID pandemic, DHA had a target of issuing 3 million smart Identity Document (ID) cards per financial year. Subsequently, it set a target of issuing 2.2 million smart cards in 2022/23 and 2.5 million cards in 2023/24. With the upcoming South African elections, a huge demand for smart ID cards would arise. Why did DHA not set the number of smart ID cards issued for 2023/24 to the target set before the COVID pandemic? Why did BMA not present its budget and APP to the Committee? Could the Committee have details on the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between BMA and DHA? Would DHA conduct its shopping mall rollouts during trading hours? To reduce DHA backlog, why did its opening hours not include Saturday mornings?

Ms A Maleka (ANC, Mpumalanga) said DHA office long queues was common in all provinces. What progress has been made to address long queues? Acknowledging that DHA presented its Gender-Based Violence (GBV) plan to the Committee in 2022, she asked if there were challenges faced in the implementation of the plan. Was DHA able to successfully roll out the Border Management Control System (BMCS) in 34 POE in 2022/23? Was DHA on target for the further roll out of the BMCS in 38 additional POEs? If not, what were the existing challenges?

Mr T Dodovu (ANC, North West) said the long queues in DHA offices were unacceptable. In an attempt to resolve this, he previously raised the matter with Minister Motsoaledi three years ago. Additionally, he visited DHA offices and requested they search for better office spaces. However, due to budgetary constraints, DHA was unable to acquire or rent those offices. DHA was a crucial service delivery department for South Africans. The areas surrounding DHA offices were filled with a lot of criminal activities. DHA long queues should be urgently attended. He availed himself to assist DHA in addressing the matter and searching for better office spaces. What was DHA plan to ensure that long queues was addressed urgently?

BMA was an important institution in the lives of South Africans. On the previous day, South Africans took matters into their own hands and evicted foreigners selling at Bree Street in Johannesburg. The interviewed political leader was inappropriate and out of order for suggesting the suspension of the Constitution to forcefully remove foreigners from South Africa. Illegal immigrants was affecting everyone and South Africans were deeply concerned. He was concerned that BMA was only allocated R250 million compared to the R2.6 billion they had requested and perhaps the government should intervene in the matter. When the process to legislate the law that regulated BMA was initiated, there was a lot of excitement as it was a way to clear more than 7 million illegal immigrants in South Africa. The BMA issue should be given special attention. Perhaps DHA should share BMA's challenges with the Committee so that it could play its role in urgently resolving the illegal immigrant issue. BMA was the only institution that would assist DHA in completely addressing the matter.

Mr E Mthethwa (ANC, KZN) appreciated the work that DHA had done especially at the DHA office in Commercial Road, Ethekwini as the Office Manager, Mr Jabu Mgobozi constantly managed the queue and ensured that the queues were not long. Hopefully, his deployment to the DHA office in Pinetown would bring about some changes to that branch. Clients could attest to the work that Mr Mgobhozi had done and it showed that if DHA offices were well coordinated and the staff was doing its work effectively, long queus would be resolved similarly to how it was resolved at the Commercial Road branch.

Did BMA have a plan to operate as a standalone department with its own budget and scope of work without splitting its finances with other departments because that would empower BMA to get things done and ensure border protection was in safe hands? If such a plan existed, how long would it take to implement it?

Mr K Motsamai (EFF, Gauteng) asked what the DHA plan was with the Chinese and Malawians in Johannesburg who enslaved and oppressed South Africans and paid them R8 a day. While the Chinese people could not speak any South African language and did not possess work permits, they continued to enslave South Africans in their own country.

What was the rule of Operation Dudula because foreigners were being attacked in Soweto and other surrounding areas? Exiled South Africans were not treated the way foreigners were being treated in South Africa.

How were the necessary verifications conducted for a person who wanted to obtain a South African naturalisation certificate? He had previously lodged a complaint to DHA on behalf of a foreign applicant as to when he would be provided with the proper documentation, especially a naturalisation certificate, to prevent the event of the foreign applicant purchasing an illegal ID and passport. He recalled that Mr Sigama said the waiting list only had 90 people and the foreign applicant would be shortly assisted. However, the applicant had not yet been assisted. Was he being dismissed because of his political affiliation? Why were foreigners not provided with the required documents to prevent them from resorting to illegal measures as illegal South African IDs were conveniently sold everywhere?

The Chairperson asked about the challenges that existed in BMA’s staff integration process. What measures would the SAPS implement to mitigate BMA’s service delivery challenges? Could DHA provide the locations of the four selected offices where the Integrated Case Management System (ICMS) would be implemented and what were the criteria used to select those offices?

Mr Motsamai commended the DHA Digitisation programme which aimed to employ 10 000 graduates. Could DHA provide more information on the Digitisation programme? How can the youth apply for it? He congratulated DHA for the way it handled the Thabo Bester scandal. DHA liaised exceptionally with the Tanzanian authorities to ensure seamless deportation of the alleged perpetrators. The DHA court submissions, as seen in the media, were excellent and the Minister's response to questions was clear and pertinent. DHA actions and responses were an example of how other departments should respond to save South Africa from the unfortunate events that arise.

DHA response
Mr Hollamby replied that the DHA budgetary pressure caused especially by vehicles would be alleviated by using a self-financing mechanism which allowed DHA to retain some of its revenue generated through the sale of passports and IDs. DHA would use the generated income in its modernisation process, to acquire vehicles, and to service its generators. If revenue collections were improved, the available self-financing would be increased which was a key finance target in 2023/24 and would ensure that the vehicle fleet was well maintained, allow for the expansion of the mobile unit fleet and ensure that generators were maintained.

The DHA 2023/24 MTEF allocation has a baseline of R10.863 billion. DHA also received money from adjustment estimates amounting to R500 million for digitisation and R798 million in self-financing. The adjusted estimate affected DHA baseline. On 31 March 2023, through the Second Appropriation Act, DHA received R300 million for the Represented Political Parties Fund (RPPF). Thus, these figures increased the DHA initial allocation.

Mr Makhode replied that DHA counter-corruption and security services worked with other law enforcement agencies and ensured the protection of whistle-blowers. The staff morale and friendliness of DHA was an ongoing process. The Deputy Director-General (DDG) and Human Resources (HR) department were working on an initiative to investigate DHA organisational culture. DHA was focused on training its frontline staff.

In 2022/23, the Movement Control System (MCS) was rolled out to 34 POEs and DHA planned to roll out the system to 38 POEs in 2023/24. In total, the MCS initiative would be rolled out to 72 POEs.

COVID has affected DHA operations which included the loss of staff. DHA was trying to capacitate its staff to get to the pre-COVID staff levels. There has been an incremental improvement with the smart ID cards and DHA aimed to return to the targets it had set before the COVID pandemic. DHA, in collaboration with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), would commence with its smart ID card awareness campaigns.

The CFO would look into finding alternate office spaces for the Matlosana DHA office. Alternatively, DHA would determine where the current offices in Matlosana were operating and collaborate with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) as it was responsible for negotiating better office spaces. DHA appreciated the feedback on the efforts of Mr Mgobozi at the DHA office in Commercial Street, Ethekwini. Mr Mgobozi was the embodiment of a patriot and a great example of what a civil servant should do.

Mr Thulani Mavuso, DHA DDG: Institutional Planning and Support, said DHA introduced the BABS in its offices and it was operating effectively. To date, DHA had serviced approximately 1.2 million clients through BABS since it was introduced in the previous year. On 7 June 2023, Gauteng province had 232 bookings made in the Pretoria DHA office, 153 bookings in Boksburg, and 154 bookings in Akasia. A large number of South Africans were using BABS and people could use DHA iPads to make bookings if they did not have access to smartphones. During COVID, people could access the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) which signalled that about 93% of the South African citizen had access to smartphones. Most South Africans were in a position to help the elderly in making bookings and thus be assisted quickly when they came to DHA offices. Chairs would be provided at DHA offices which had inadequate queuing halls. Ideally, DHA did not want to have any queues in its offices. Rather, applicants were advised to arrive in time for their appointment as per their booking. The number of people using BABS in other provinces was low but DHA was working with provincial and office managers to ensure that improvements were made.

DHA currently did not have a legal instrument that allowed its front offices to operate over the weekend. However, DHA has included the matter in the Amendment Bill which would be soon introduced in Parliament to address conditions of services for people employed by DHA. Before the introduction of BMA, immigration officials worked seven days a week as aeroplanes arrived daily, with some arriving in the early hours of the morning and thus a shift system was introduced for the workers. A shift system would also be introduced in the front offices. Currently, DHA had an issue because unions advocated for workers to be paid overtime for working over the weekend. In terms of the Basic Conditions Of Employment, when workers worked over the weekend, they would have already exceeded the stipulated 45-hour work week. If workers were to work over the weekend, additional hours would be worked and overtime payments would have to be made. Before the withdrawal of the shift system in June 2017, there was an agreement to renegotiate the working hours and the matter still needed to be addressed by Minister Motsoaledi and the union representatives.

The Digitisation programme would be divided into three phases. In the first phase, DHA planned to recruit 2 000 people; 4 000 people in the second phase and an additional 4 000 people in the third phase. DHA wanted to ensure that the required machinery and facilities needed for the Digitisation programme had been acquired before graduates were recruited. The anticipated 10 000 graduates to be employed through the digitisation programme actually exceeded the DHA 8 000 full-time employees in number and thus adequate facilities were required for the programme. Towards the end of 2022, DHA advertised the first 2 000 posts and it was currently interviewing, appointing, and screening candidates for some of those positions. DHA was able to appoint 1 405 graduates for the Digitisation programme and trained the first cohort of graduates who were currently working in various provinces preparing and indexing records before scanning them. DHA acquired and currently had on hand 12 of the 20 digitisation machines. The digitisation machines have been tested to determine how many pages could be scanned. A large-volume scanner could scan 100 000 pages a day. If a shift system was introduced, DHA anticipated that it would be able to digitise the 340 million records ahead of the scheduled deadline.

Mr Yusuf Simons, DHA Acting DDG: Immigration Services, thanked Mr Motsamai for working closely with DHA on its inspectorate operations. Mr Motsamai previously assisted DHA on its inspectorate operation in Alberton and another successful inspectorate operation on a Chinese-owned factory that was publicised in the media and on which Minister Motsoaledi made a statement. The owner of the Chinese factory was arrested and several Malawians were found. Another operation involving undocumented Malawians had been discovered. He had been informed that Mr Motsamai met with a team from DHA two weeks ago. More inspectorate operations had been planned and DHA hoped to continue working with Mr Motsamai as he could give DHA more information for its plan of operations and assist in addressing the Chinese business people and any other person that employed undocumented foreigners. Minister Motsoaledi met with the China Business Forum (CBF) in the previous year and he expressed his concerns about the employment of undocumented foreigners. DHA has the Operation Siyasebenta programme and in 2023/24 DHA planned to conduct twice the number of 2022/23 operations. In 2022/23 DHA planned to conduct 540 operations but conducted over 1 000 operations. DHA has appointed 150 000 additional inspectorate officials throughout the provinces. Every second Friday, Operation Siyasebenta dealt with different sectors and DHA was aware that the Chinese operated in the recycling area, Chinese mall area. DHA would focus on supermarkets, retail stores, spaza shops, hospitality industry, recycling industry, security sector, mining sector and so on. DHA has invested a lot of energy and resources in dealing with employed undocumented immigrants and it was targeting the employers because the undocumented could only work illegally with the employer’s permission. More than 200 employers had been arrested, charged and taken to court. Dockets had been opened and they were taken through the justice system. It was important for DHA to deal with those employers and address the exploitation of the undocumented. DHA would continue its relationship with Mr Motsamai and welcomed any information he had which would assist its operations.

Mr Thomas Sigama, DHA DDG: Civic Services, replied that as per the South African Citizenship Act, a naturalisation certificate applicant had to apply at a DHA front office. Subsequently, an adjudication committee at the DHA back office would then adjudicate the forwarded applications. DHA received applications with supporting documentation but most of the supporting documents were manual and not digitised. DHA has to perform its due diligence on all submitted documents. Once that process has been concluded, the applicants would be invited for induction in batches and subsequently given a naturalisation certificate through the DHA front office. In 2022/23, DHA received 969 cases which went through that process and were all adjudicated. DHA had to verify all the supporting documents submitted by applicants which included police clearance and submitted permits. DHA had to confirm the authenticity of the submitted documents with its branches. Applicants who were not yet called by DHA office would be invited once the process was concluded. DHA needed to go through its archives and search for the original documents that applicants claim to have received from DHA. When DHA reaches the required batch number, the applicants would be invited to collect their naturalisation certificates from a DHA front office.

Deputy Minister response
Deputy Minister Nzuza said DHA was the only department that had a counter-corruption and fraud unit at a DDG level. The unit yielded outstanding results evidenced by the number of prosecutions, arrests, and the sentencing of the perpetrators of corruption within DHA. The COVID-19 pandemic disturbed DHA operations and it consequently reduced its target for issued smart ID cards. Load-shedding affected the number of people that could be serviced in a day. While some DHA offices had generators, they were connected through switches which needed to be powered outside DHA offices. DHA was aware of the upcoming election year and planned a massive smart ID card campaign which would focus on smart ID card collections and the process of issuing smart ID cards to 16-year-olds. DHA was currently concluding its public relations and media programme on the collection of smart ID cards. It further extended an invitation to new ID applicants ahead of the election year.

DHA would have liked to operate on Saturday mornings but due to the labour issues it had to navigate, DHA was unable to do so. DHA was concerned about the long queues and it was making some progress on tackling the matter. DHA dealt with the staffing challenge through its capacitation programme by hiring more staff and increasing its staff operating capacity. DHA was also increasing its footprint and it was fixing an office that would be opened soon in Taung in the North West province. The Taung office was part of the purpose-built offices that DHA was building throughout the country which would contribute to the DHA quest to tackle the long queues. DHA was currently addressing its network and connectivity challenges with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Every time DHA interacts with the Committee, it pleaded with its members to join its call for more funding especially when it came to BMA policy. When the COVID pandemic struck, the most affected sector in terms of budget cuts was the Security Cluster, which DHA was part of, but hopefully that would be resolved because DHA had a plan to address the matter.

Mr Motsamai's assistance was highly appreciated and DHA welcomed any information he may have. The DHA Inspectorate Unit would continue to prevent illegal activities from happening. Once DHA received a tip-off, it would be delighted to work with Mr Motsamai on addressing the issues raised.

The Digitisation programme was one that gave DHA pride and was progressing accordingly. DHA was creating space to accommodate more graduates. Graduate intakes had already begun and DHA was excited to have the youth on board.

BMA response
Dr Masiapato replied that BMA exited its incubation from DHA on 1 April 2023 and was operating as a standalone autonomous Schedule 3A public entity. During BMA’s incubation in 2022/23, it developed its strategic plan, operational plan and APP. BMA has presented these to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. However, BMA’s invitation to the Select Committee did not indicate that it wanted a briefing on the BMA APP. If it had requested this, the BMA APP would have been presented and made available to the Committee. Other departments had to allocate funds to BMA during 2022/23 but those funds have now permanently moved to BMA. It was running its affairs independently and the CFO indicated that BMA had R1.3 billion in 2023/24 which it would use to operate independently. BMA and DHA signed a SLA which would be shared with the Committee as requested.

BMA pleaded with the Committee to assist it with receiving funding for capacitating BMA. BMA understood the critical role it played in dealing with issues around immigration and trade facilitation, exportation and importation which were crucial for the economic development of the country.

BMA experienced challenges with moving almost 2 000 people out of the public service and employing them within a Schedule 3A public entity. BMA encountered a lot of administrative issues but subsequently addressed some of them in April and May 2023. BMA was hoping that the majority of those administrative and technical issues would be addressed by the end of June 2023. BMA was collectively addressing those issues with labour unions within the context of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). The 2 000 employees were moved from DHA and other departments in terms of section 197 of the Labour Relations Act and BMA had to ensure that the employees were not worse off than the previous positions they were in.

BMA signed an implementation protocol with SAPS to continue with access control in the various ports. BMA would gradually exit that agreement as it subsequently employs more border guards. The SAPS leadership agreed to work with BMA until it was fully capacitated to take over its access control responsibilities. BMA, in collaboration with DHA, was addressing its back-office challenges. The DHA DG, CFO and HR Chief were assisting BMA with its back office work which includes risk management and audits. Collaboration with DHA would continue until BMA was fully capacitated. Mitigation elements were implemented to ensure BMA operates efficiently as an independent entity.

Follow-up discussion
The Chairperson asked the BMA Commissioner and DHA to respond in writing to the questions that had not been fully addressed. She asked if Operation Dudula was part of DHA operations. Perhaps the Committee could receive a written response from DHA on the GBV plan and the criteria used to select the four offices where it would implement the ICMS.

Mr Simons replied that Operation Dudula was not part of DHA. Like anyone who made contact with DHA, Operation Dudula contacted DHA. DHA requested Operation Dudula to provide it with information on undocumented foreigners and immigrants and operations were launched by DHA within its security cluster. While Operation Dudula was not part of DHA, it was welcomed to provide any information it had on foreigners who were employed illegally and DHA would use its law enforcement inspectorate unit to conduct operations.

The Chairperson thanked Deputy Minister Nzuza, the BMA Commissioner and the government officials for the information they provided. The Committee would await the requested written responses and the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between BMA and DHA. DHA has come a long way since its initial interaction with the Sixth Parliament Committee in 2019. She agreed that BMA was an important institution. While it recognised the work done by DHA, the Committee wanted to encourage DHA to improve on the long queues, budgetary challenges, service delivery, and other constraints it had. DHA should use the customer satisfaction surveys it conducted to improve its services. The Committee looked forward to receiving reports on the implementation of the BMA. The DHA budget and APP report would be included in the budget policy debate in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) scheduled for 20 June 2023.

The meeting was adjourned.