Question NW696 to the Minister of Home Affairs
29 March 2022 - NW696
Roos, Mr AC to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1)With reference to the presentation of his department to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on 31 August 2021, wherein his department indicated that, in addition to the current 27 sites, it plans to roll out eHomeAffairs services to a further 43 sites in the near future, what are the (a) details of the progress and time frames for the roll-out to 43 additional sites and (b) plans and time frames of his department to expand services further in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years; (2) what challenges are currently preventing the eHomeAffairs services from being available at ABSA Stellenbosch Branch, where the equipment has allegedly already been in place for two years?
Reply:
1. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and the Banks have not signed the Public Private Partnership (PPP) due to a number of pertinent issues that still need be resolved between the parties before the signing of the PPP agreements. These issues are related to: system support at the banks, allocation of dedicated DHA official per bank and also training of certain bank officials. Currently, the Civic Services team is under-capacitated across DHA Civic Services branches nationwide with no additional staff to send to the Banks. This issue is applicable to all potential banks for further rollout of the service, in question.
2. Indeed, equipment has been installed at ABSA Stellenbosch Branch, however there is no dedicated DHA official to be assigned to the branch. Furthermore, the issue of PPP sign-off is still pending and this will pave a way for the DHA to initiate a rollout plan (including human resources) with the banks who are will to participate and this includes ABSA Branch in Stellenbosch.
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