Question NW3610 to the Minister of Home Affairs
24 November 2023 - NW3610
van der Merwe, Ms LL to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1)What are the reasons that the Immigration Affairs branch of his department continues to (a) achieve below 50% of its set targets and (b) struggle with vulnerabilities pertaining to fraud, corruption and security breaches; (2) (a) how are the specified challenges resolved and (b) what total number of overstay notices were issued to foreign nationals who had overstayed their visa-free stay or visas since 2019?
Reply:
(1)(a) It is common cause that the Department of Home Affairs is grossly under-staffed at 39% staffing. A Business Plan was sent to Treasury to this effect. Treasury provided R 260 Million to capacitate the Department. However, this took the Department to a 42% staffing level. This translates to 700 extra staff. Unfortunately, the Department had to make a choice between staffing the Civics branch or the Immigration Branch more. The choice we made, which was also made in past instances, was to send more of the staff to the Civics branch because every single South African depends on it for documentation. Hence, the Immigration branch will always perform much less than the Civics branch.
(1)(b) When coming to fraud the Department of Home Affairs is the only government department with a Counter Corruption branch. This branch is doing a lot. It even has a Chief Director for Analysis and Prevention and it is very working well.
(2)(a) The department has implemented the different quality assurance levels, which allows for better control in the adjudication process. It minimises the risk of security breaches and fraudulent activities. The department has a Counter Corruption branch, who are monitoring the work of officials. They are also working closely with other relevant agencies to help prevent such activities from taking place as well as to identify those officials who are involved in such activities.
(2)(b) According to the department's Enhanced Movement Control System (EMCS), 137 846 overstay notices were issued to foreign nationals who had overstayed their visa-free stay or visas since 2019.
END