Hansard: NA: Mini-plenary 4

House: National Assembly

Date of Meeting: 24 May 2022

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Minutes

UNREVISED HANSARD
MINI PLENARY - NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
TUESDY, 24 MAY 2022
VOTE NO 5 – HOME AFFAIRS
Watch: Mini-Plenary 
PROCEEDINGS OF MINI-PLENARY SESSION — NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
____
Members of the mini-plenary session met on the virtual platform at 14:00.

House Chairperson Ms M G Boroto took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayer or meditation.

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M G Boroto): Hon members, before we proceed, I would like to remind you that the virtual mini— plenary is deemed to be in the precinct of Parliament and constitutes a meeting of the National Assembly for debating purposes only. In addition to the Rules of virtual sittings, the Rules of the National Assembly, including the rules of debate, shall apply. Members enjoy the same powers and privileges that apply in a sitting of the National Assembly.

Members should equally note that anything said on the virtual platform is deemed to have been said to the House and may be ruled upon. All members who have logged in shall be considered to be present and are requested to mute their microphones and only unmute when recognised to speak. This is because the microphones are very sensitive and will pick up noise which might ... [Inaudible.] ... of other members. When recognised to speak, please unmute your microphone and connect your video. We do appreciate the problems of network ... If that is the case, you will inform us that you are unable to open your
videos so that you can get a better ... [Inaudible.] Members may make use of the icons on the bar at the bottom of their screens which has an ... [Inaudible.] ... a member to put up his or her hand to ... [Inaudible.] The secretary will assist in alerting the Chairperson to members requesting to speak.
When using the virtual platform, members are urged to refrain or desist from unnecessary points of order or interjections.
Hon members, we shall now proceed to the Order, which is a debate on Vote No 5 — Home Affairs Appropriation Bill. I nowinvite the Minister of Home Affairs the hon Dr Motsoaledi. Hon
... [Inaudible.] ... you are recognised.

APPROPRIATION BILL
Debate on Vote No 5 — Home Affairs:

The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: House Chairperson, my colleague Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Mr Njabulo Nzuza, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs hon Mosa Chabane, hon members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, hon members of the National Assembly, vice-chairperson of the
Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, Ms Janet Love and chief executive officer, CEO, Mr Sy Mamabolo, Director-General, DG, of the Department of Home Affairs Mr Tommy Makhode, the CEO of the Government Printing Works Ms Alinah Fosi and the commissioner of the Border Management Authority Dr Mike Masiapato, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, on this day of our Budget Vote, we as the Department of Home Affairs are acutely aware that we are sitting in this House in the presence of two elephants in the room. Yes, there are two main things that occupy our minds, your minds as members of the
House and the minds of the South African public at large. These are the long winding queues outside the Department of Home Affairs and the issue of immigration in our land. At this moment in time, you are expecting no less from this Budget Vote than to hear what the department’s best laid plans are to deal with these two issues.

There are of course other important issues that affect members of the public that the Department of Home Affairs deals with daily but the two main arms of the department, viz: civic services and immigration, have an ever-looming presence in our midst.
Let me start with civic services and let me start with the issue of the long queues in our front offices. It is common cause that we cannot pinpoint only one particular reason why we have this unsavoury state of affairs. There are numerous and various reasons that are responsible. However, the main one that sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest is the issue of systems downtime. In my previous budget speech, I referred to this as the original sin. Visiting a Home Affairs office very early in the morning, and just standing there and waiting for hours on end because the systems are down, is painful and generates a lot of anger. It is very frustrating to say the least. Many members of the public simply believe that the Department of Home Affairs’ computers don’t work and they keep asking us the following question. Why don’t you just fix your computers or buy new ones? We can’t blame them. They
don’t know that the problem of continuous systems downtime is beyond just fixing computers.

Last year, both the State Information Technology Agency, Sita, and the Department of Home Affairs appeared in front of the portfolio committee and outlined plans to deal with this perennial problem. As if systems downtime is not enough, you are also aware that we had a COVID problem where we could not provide all of the services. Now everybody has come back to demand the services that they missed for a period of 18 to 24 months. That makes the situation worse. Let me outline what, together Sita and the Department of Home Affairs promised the portfolio committee as interventions:
Number one is the revamping of the old network. I am happy to announce that Sita has informed us that they are spending R400 million on revamping their entire network, having just completed a procurement process in that regard. This revamp will be concluded in the third quarter of this financial year.
Number two is implementing the Software Define Network, SDN. This work has been concluded by Sita and will assist in increasing our bandwidth due to the number of applications we use at civics. This will increase connectivity.

Number three is internet capacity. I know of no other
government department that consumes as much internet services
as Home Affairs does. Virtually, internet services are a sine
qua non for the existence of our civic services. Sita has now
doubled its internet capacity and introduced three failovers
located in three cities — Tshwane, Cape Town and eThekwini.
This will ensure that if any of the network ... is down, there
will be two to support our services. Members of the portfolio
committee have always asked about the issue of redundancy,
meaning backup connection or network ... Hence, the failovers
in three cities will assist with regard to this redundancy.
Number four is the development plan for cybersecurity. Sita
has finalised its procurement plan to address cybersecurity
for information technology, IT, infrastructure. This will be
implemented during this financial year once law enforcement
agencies have given approval. All in all, Sita has committed
to spending R1 billion on IT infrastructure to support the
Department of Home Affairs and others. However, we know that
Home Affairs will be the major beneficiary.
Our fifth intervention is the roll-out of switches and
routers. The department has installed 136 routers and

150 switches in 136 offices. We still need to install
112 routers and 68 switches which have already been bought.
Number six is bringing in engineers from the banks. We wish to
confess that whenever our systems are down, we stand in awe of
the banks which always seem to have stable IT, and we ask
ourselves, how do they achieve this? I am happy to announce
that after engagements on this issue, we are bringing on board
eight IT engineers from the leading bank to assist in
stabilising our network. All eight of them have already been
vetted. The process has been completed and they are going to
join us very soon.
Our partnership with the bank will rapidly reduce our skills
deficit. Members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs
will remember that on numerous occasions we mentioned that we
want to bring the banks on board to provide some of Home
Affairs’ services. However, this did not work as fast as we
did, simply because the banks are very worried about their
reputation. They are worried because they use the same system
as us, which if down will damage the reputation of the banks.
However, once some of their engineers have helped us the banks
will come on board to offer our services.

Number seven is SA Connect. ... an announcement made by the
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies. We know
that this is a government-wide programme but Home Affairs will
be a major beneficiary.
Number eight is installing generators. We have installed
generators in 197 modernised offices but unfortunately, the
remaining 215 nonmodernised offices are always out of
operation during the period of load shedding in a particular
area. This increases the queues.
There is also a national scourge which Home Affairs is
particularly vulnerable to, and that is cable theft. On
26 April 2022, the headline in the Daily Dispatch, an Eastern
Cape newspaper read as follows: “Cable theft shuts Home
Affairs”. While technicians from Sita were able to resolve
this, it took two days to install new cables, leaving the
entire province unable to access some services. Again, and
needless to say, members of the public simply believe that
Home Affairs is failing dismally to repair their computers.
They express their anger through abusive phone calls and
emails that we receive.

We do try and deploy mobile trucks every time there is cable
theft. The National Joint Operational and Intelligence
Structure, Natjoints, is also trying to deal with this matter
but the level of anger from the public is always high when
this happens. We ask members of the public to realise that
when somebody steals cables they make it impossible for them
to get documents from Home Affairs.
Our ninth intervention is the issue of infrastructure. You are
all aware that our offices are hired from the Department of
Public Works. They were built by somebody else for their
purposes. They are not custom-made, but we have tried our best
to start building custom-made offices, such as the Lusikisiki
office which is now open. We are finalising construction and
will soon open offices in Mokopane and Thohoyandou in Limpopo,
and of course in Taung in North West. We are about to start
construction in Stanger in KwaZulu-Natal.
We have also registered 15 offices with the Presidential
Infrastructure Co-ordinating committee for them to be built
through a public-private partnership, PPP, project and we have
chosen our high volume offices. These are Byron Place in
Pretoria; the not so well spoken about Harrison Street office

 
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in Johannesburg; in the Eastern Cape is Buffalo City, Gqeberha
and Mthatha; in KwaZulu-Natal is Pinetown and Mngungundlovu;
in Limpopo is Polokwane; and in Mpumalanga it will be
Emalahleni and Mbombela.
As you can see, these 15 high volume infrastructure projects
were well thought out and the offices identified were well
chosen because of the perennial problems they present to the
public. However, we need to concede that it will take some
time until infrastructure relief is felt by our clients
because construction is still to start. Hence, as an immediate
relief measure, we have been engaging with several malls in
our country. Operating Home Affairs offices in malls will
obviate the problem of queuing in the sun or rain. Malls will
provide convenient and safe parking for clients. We will start
with Menlyn mall in Pretoria, Cresta mall and Southgate Mall
in Johannesburg, the Pavillion in eThekwini and Tyger Valley
mall in Cape Town. It is hoped that the Cresta mall operation
will help relieve the much-maligned Randburg office and
operations in the Pavillion will relieve pressure on the
Umgeni office in KwaZulu-Natal, which is often not well spoken
about.

 
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Since the malls have to move tenants around to make way for
Home Affairs, we will install our equipment in the malls
around September this year. We shall start with the Menlyn
mall in Pretoria and then roll out to the rest of the country.
Our 10th intervention is the Branch Appointment Booking
System, Babs. This is an appointment system that has been
piloted in 24 of our high volume offices which are the
busiest. Since December last year when the pilot started and
up till now, 33 463 people have used this facility. The Deputy
Minister will outline more on this issue, so I’ll leave it.
Our 11th intervention is staffing of the department. The last
major project in dealing with queues is the capacitation of
the department with regard to staffing. We have complained on
numerous occasions that our front offices are only
39% staffed. This is because, for the past five years,
Treasury has slapped a ceiling or moratorium on the
compensation of employees and we were not able to replace
people leaving the department by natural attrition.
Chairperson ... [Inaudible.] ... is the painful loss of
40 front office staff due to COVID. We also suffered severe

 
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budget cuts over the past two years because money had to go to
health facilities in order to fight COVID.
In this financial year, we want to thank Treasury because they
came to the party, even though I must warn that we still have
a long way to go. We have been allocated R266 million to deal
with our staffing ... but unfortunately in civics it will only
take us from 39% to 42%. We will hire 364 employees. A total
of 517 will be sent to the front offices and 288 will be new
immigration officers.
We are also deploying mobile offices. We have bought 10 extra
mobile offices for R15 million. In this financial year, we
will buy 15 more for R20 million. These trucks ... mobile
services, have helped a lot during the recent floods in
KwaZulu-Natal and hence, we value them a lot. This is a
project of the Deputy Minister who is running it and I’m sure
he will elaborate on it.
The digitisation of our paper records. We have announced many
times that we have 300 million paper records that stretches as
far back as 1985 but all of them are manual. How do they
contribute to long queues? It’s because people have to come

 
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back to Home Affairs many times when they change their names
in what is called rectification or name change, and officials
still have to go to archives to search among 300 paper
records. So they tell the client to come back, and
unfortunately this coming back may happen many times.
Let me move to the issue of immigration. As I said earlier,
another elephant in our room is the problem of immigration. I
don’t have to outline what is taking place regarding this
problem in our country. It is a crisis that we are well aware
of. However, if I were to start outlining here what we need to
do, it will need its own budget speech.
So for today, I think it will suffice for me to inform you
that a complete overhaul of the immigration system in the
country is needed. A complete overhaul means exactly that. I
can assure you that work in this regard has already started
and is underway, and we will soon unveil it to you.
Let me move to border management. We have conceded the problem
of porous borders in our country. You are aware that we are
busy implementing ... The commissioner Dr Masiapato and the
two deputy commissioners are busy every day. They have already

 
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finalised the recruitment of the first cohort of 200 border
guards. The border guards will be coming next week for
orientation and deployment to selected areas of the borderline
where there are problems. Their uniforms, with its own logo,
has already been purchased, together with their tools of
trade. It is hoped that this cohort will be officially
launched in the first days of the coming quarter.
Presently, the Border Management Authority, BMA, is incubated
as a branch in the Department of Home Affairs. However, I wish
to state to you that from 1 April next year it will be a 3A
public entity — stand alone, responsible for our borders.
Let me go to counter corruption. Chairperson, only 11 months
ago, I came to the portfolio committee to introduce a Counter
Corruption unit of 13 people headed by one deputy director-
general, DDG. I’m sure that you already know their work. The
number of arrests of kingpins and syndicates speak volumes.
Sixty per cent of the cases in the Counter Corruption unit
deal with immigration, especially matters pertaining to
permitting. It’s a testimony as to why we need a complete
overhaul of the immigration system in our country.

 
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Let me inform you that in the coming weeks we will continue to
arrest more and more people, both foreign nationals and South
Africans involved in passport fraud and other forms of
identity theft, as well as corruption. Since the arrest of the
Pakistani kingpin on 24 March this year at our Krugersdorp
offices, Counter Corruption cannot get any rest.
South Africans from all walks of life, including Members of
Parliament, are reporting on a daily basis what is happening
... corruption, where we need to go and we are heeding the
call. We are going there, we are investigating and we are
making progress. Chairperson, if you want to understand why we
are so deliberate and determined to deal with the issue of
corruption, go to page three of The Sowetan today and read
what an independent crime and policing analyst Prof Johan
Burger says. He says that South Africa’s identity system could
be compromised if identity fraud is not stopped by
authorities. So, we are authorities. We are going to stop
identity fraud, and let me tell you, we shall do it without
favour, without fear and prejudice, and we will never be
intimidated or derailed by anybody when we do this work. The
Counter Corruption unit is not just reactive. They also
identify loopholes and that’s why we are going to hire

 
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12 extra staff members who are analysts, researchers and
investigators.
With regard to the Government Printing Works, GPW, I promised
the portfolio committee that we would have a footprint in the
whole continent of Africa. I’m reporting today that the GPW
has delivered 60 000 copies of Namibian birth certificates. It
will also deliver Namibian marriage certificates, death
certificates and Namibian permanent residence permits. It also
delivered 75 good shepherd college certificates,
1 435 university certificates and 29 royal Eswatini police
service certificates for Eswatini. We have a deal in the
pipeline that has already been signed with Kenya to print
identity documents, IDs, travel documents and examination
materials.
If I go to the IEC, it has concluded a review of the
2021 local government elections, and this experience is going
to help us in the 2024 elections. The portfolio committee is
busy with the appointment of a new commissioner to fill the
space of the former chairperson whose term has come to an end,
and we hope this will be done timeously.

 
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I wish to take this opportunity to thank my colleague Deputy
Minister Nzuza for working very well with me, the DG of Home
Affairs Mr Tommy Makhode, the CEO of the GPW Ms Alina Fosi,
the commissioner of the BMA Dr Masiapato, and the former chair
of the IEC Mr Mashinini and the CEO Mr Mamabolo for very good
working relationships. I also wish to thank the chairperson of
the portfolio committee Mr Mosa Chabane and hon members of the
portfolio committee for the very warm, and extremely well and
productive working relations. This spells progress. I am
tabling, for consideration by this honourable House, an amount
of R9,4 billion for Budget Vote No 5 — Department of Home
Affairs. I thank you very much.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M G Boroto): Thank you very much,
Minister. You still had a minute or more left. That’s why you
didn’t see my face. Let me just say to all members that
whenever my face appears, it’s an indication to you to wrap up
because you’ll be left with one minute. I’ll always switch off
my video to allow that, so that I don’t interfere with your
speech. As we proceed, we will now recognise the ANC and the
chairperson of the portfolio committee, hon Chabane.

 
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Mr M S CHABANE: Thank you, House Chairperson; Minister
Motsoaledi; Deputy Minister, Njabulo Nzuza; hon members;
Deputy Chairperson of the ... [Inaudible.] ... and all
commissioners, the chief executive officer of Government
Printing Works, Ms Fosi; the commissioner of the Border
Management Authority; director-general and fellow South
Africans, I rise to support this Budget Vote 5 which is Tabled
on the eve of Africa Day.
On 25 May 1963, 32 signatory government established the
Organisation of African Unity, the precursor of African Union.
The objective of this establishment was to encourage political
and economic integration among member states from the African
Continent. Africa month allows us to reflect on the
continent’s progress and the common challenges that she faces.
The African Unity, AU, has themed this year’s celebration; In
building resilience in nutrition on the African Continent. The
global crisis caused by the COVID pandemic exposed the
economic viability of African countries as well as weaknesses
of health and food security.
The natural disaster which befell the people of KwaZulu-Natal
And the Eastern Cape has also contributed negatively to these

 
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realities. The speedy intervention by the Department of Home
Affairs, which made financial concession and provided identity
document for rest for residents affected by the flood, must be
uploaded by this House. These interventions ensure that people
are people are able to access much needed social security
intervention provided by the ANC-led government. The core
mandate of the department is to secure, confirm our identity
and citizenship, promoting wellbeing of all citizens
regardless of race, gender or class.
Hon House Chairperson, on 15 March 2020, after the declaration
of a national state of disaster, the President announced a
R500 billion fiscal support package, which included spending
towards COVID-19. This meant that the Department of Home
Affairs had to adopt a special adjustment budget to modify
2020-21 budget allocation. The outbreak of COVID-19 and other
economic factors facing South African resulted in a budget of
the Department Home Affairs being cut twice in amount of
R1,8 billion in the financial 2020-21 and 2021-22. In fact,
the baseline was cut by R969 million and R971 million was for
compensation of employees.

 
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House Chairperson, the impact of this budget cuts have been
severe as a critical post for both civic and immigration, as
the Minister has outlined. However, welcomed the National
Treasury allocation of R266 million to fill these vacancies in
these critical areas. The portfolio committee has been raising
concern on the vacant positions which are critically in the
life operation of Department of Home Affairs, such that of the
Deputy director-general, counter corruption and security
services and the chief information office. To date, House
Chairperson, we can report to this House that all this
position has been filled.
In a quest to resolve the war against law of long queues and
system downtime we are convinced that the new chief
information officer, CIO, will gradually stabilise the
challenges of system downtime which negatively affect our
people. In the same vein, the Department of Home Affairs, as
outlined by the Minister, has faced criticism from the society
on alleged corruption. Since the appointment of the Deputy
director-general, DDG, Anti-Corruption Unit, we have observed
positive response on the war against corruption within the
department. The Anti-Corruption Unit is further intended to
protect and promote integrity of the department as well as

 
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ensuring that operations are conducted in a safe and corrupt
free environment.
Through the Anti-Corrupt Units today, the department has
recorded 250 people that have been arrested, including 123
Home Affairs officials in 84 nonofficial were account of
issuing fraudulent security documents such as identity
documents and passports. More concerning, House Chairperson,
is that eight SA Police Services officials were also arrested
in related corruption activities in the Department of Home
Affairs. These acts of sabotage, House Chairperson, by some
officials directly contribute to the undermining of the
security of our country. With this budget, we hope to see the
strengthening of the anti-corruption initiative to ensure that
we protect the integrity of our population register and the
security of our country.
House Chairperson, the President signed into law the Border
Management Authority Act of 2020 This was a critical step
towards the establishment of the Border Management Authority,
BMA, which will enable the implementation of an integrated
border management approach in South Africa. The Border
Management Authority, BMA, will have jurisdiction for

 
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implementing border law enforcement mandates such as
facilitating and managing of legitimate movement of persons
and goods within the border enforcement area and at the port
of entry. The portfolio committee welcomed the appointment of
the Border Management Authority Commissioner and the two
Deputy Commissioners. We are confident that the Border
Management Authority will be fully operational within the
targeted period and will play a critical role in addressing
our vulnerability and challenges of porous borders.
In 22 June 2020, the Constitutional Court set aside the order
of the Western Cape High Court and declared the Electoral Act
73 of 1998 as unconstitutional to the extent that it required
that other citizens may be elected to national and provincial
legislature only through their membership of political
parties. In this regard, significant progress had been made so
far as to comply with the order. The Electoral Amendment Bill
was introduced and referred to the committee on the 10 January
2022. In line with the Constitution, extensive public
participation is being carried out by the committee. We will
in due course bring before this House a Bill worth
consideration, a Bill replied with the views made by South
Africans.

 
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Due to the 24-month deadline in which to amend the legislation
is almost upon us, a request of extension has been made to the
Constitutional Court. House Chairperson, one of the entity
which received the budget allocation from the Budget Vote
number 5 is the Independent Electoral Commission, which is an
institution supporting constitutional democracy. The portfolio
committee take this opportunity to applaud the Independent
Electoral Commission, IEC, for maintaining clean for the
outcomes in the past financial year, which is a demonstration
of good governance. This can be apportioned to the entire
Independent Electoral Commission Commissioners, the executive
management and the entire workforce.
We further thank the Independent Electoral Commission for
considering to appoint former Deputy Chief Justice Moseneke,
to undertake an inquiry in whether free and fair elections
were possible under the public health emergency COVID-19. The
Independent Electoral Commission just this past week briefed
the committee on the 2021 local government election Report. We
must applaud the Independent Electoral Commission for
delivering a free and fair election electoral process that
strengthen our democratic system. Despite these successes,
we’ve called on the Independent Electoral Commission to

 
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continue strengthening its process, particularly on the
challenges experience as a result of the new system, the ...
[Inaudible.] ... to ensure that the credibility of our
elections are protected.
The portfolio committee has accepted the local government
election Report and isolated issues that the Independent
Electoral Commission must work on as we prepare for the 2024
national and provincial elections, including the coming by-
elections. Since its inception, House Chair, the Independent
Electoral Commission has been improving its system for fair
and free conduct of elections. It is a critical institution
which support our relatively young, yet maturing democracy. We
further want to extend our collective appreciation to the
former chairperson of Independent Electoral Commission Mr
Mashinini, for his contribution to the work of the
institution, as you know, his term has ended and the Minister
has outlined the process that the portfolio committee is
undertaking currently.
House Chairperson, oversight means for holding the executive
accountability for its action and for ensuring that it
implements policy in accordance with laws and budget passed by

 
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Parliament. It is through oversight that Parliament can ensure
a balance of power and asset its role as the defender of
people interest. Since the sixth Parliament, the portfolio
committee conducted three oversight at government printing
works facilities, engaging with labor management on challenges
faced by the institution. As the Minister has outlined,
significant progress has been made in terms of its governance
and operational system.
Furthermore, the Government Printing Works is expanding its
footprint in the Southern African Development Community, Sadc,
region which must be uploaded because it will contribute to
the economic spinoff and creation of more jobs. We welcome the
recent appointment by Government Printing works of the
specialist who will support the Information and Communications
Technology and the finance unit to manage the pertaining
challenges that we’ve identified of system downtime during our
oversight.
House Chairperson, we must emphasise that South Africa remains
open and accessible for migrants, but we must reaffirm that
immigration laws of the country must be respected. Evident by
the progress of the Border Management Authority, the portfolio

 
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committee has directed the department to increase its capacity
on immigration inspectorate and strengthen immigration laws.
We commend the Minister in your entire team for the good work
you’ve demonstrated in respond to all the recommendation of
the portfolio committee.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity, House Chair,
to wish South Africans and the citizens of the Motherland,
Africa, the happy Africa Day tomorrow. The future we are
building today must leave Africa in integrated, prosperous and
peaceful for the current and the future generation. We support
this Budget Vote.
Swahili:
Asante sana.
English:
Thank you, House Chairperson.
Ms T A KHANYILE: Thank you Chairperson. Today, as we debate
the Home Affairs Budget, I would like to take this opportunity
to thank Mr Jackson McKay, former Deputy Director-General of
Immigration, for the sterling work and dedication he has shown

 
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while serving in the aforementioned portfolio, and we wish him
well on his retirement. We would like to express our
appreciation to the Director-General, Mr Makhode, Director-
General Civic Services, Mr Sigama and their teams for the
efficient service and response to all queries we escalate to
their offices. Sadly, these men and women are thrown under the
bus by the Minister, who does not take this department
seriously.
The network system at Home Affairs is consistently offline. As
a result, queuing at Home Affairs branches before sunrise
gives no guarantee of making it into the building before
sunset. We have conducted oversights at Balfour, Nigel,
Springs, Barrack Street, and Stellenbosch branches. We also
conducted an oversight at the Home Affairs Regional Office
situated on Harrison and Plein streets, and this oversight was
led by the Leader of the Opposition, as he felt he could not
fold his arms while we were inundated with a huge volume of
calls from members of the community complaining about the
disservice they were subjected to in various branches. They
are always told to return the next day because of an offline
network.

 
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For all the above oversights, we have witnessed the network
being offline, or a photo booth crashing while we were on the
premises. The Home Affairs network regularly goes offline,
effectively shutting down the application for documents until
the system is back online. This may take up to seven and half
hours, which may prompt officials to ask the applicants to
return the following day. The applicants will then make an
effort to arrive as early as five o’clock the next day to be
first in the queue. This also puts the applicants' lives at
risk as they are expected to leave their homes around four in
the morning because some of them catch about three taxis to
get to the Home Affairs offices.
In August 2021, we welcomed an announcement by the department
to introduce an appointment booking system. This intervention
will not yield fruitful results if the Minister does not
attend to the system’s upgrade urgently. This network issue
also puts the lives of the officials in local offices at risk.
We have been told by some officials that when they advise
applicants that the system is offline, they get physically and
verbally attacked because applicants blame them for the
department’s inefficiencies. On many occasions, they have been
rescued by SA Police Service, but the Minister wouldn’t know

 
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about this because he is hardly on the ground. Some
individuals use the long queues to exploit applicants by
making them pay R300 to skip the queue. This also puts those
without money further back in the queue.
Just last week, on May 16 2022, all Home Affairs branches were
offline and we have been advised that most branches, if not
all, lose about 40 hours of work per month. I would therefore
like to suggest that the Minister urgently attend to the
systems upgrade. Introduce a queuing system where applicants
will be given numbers as they arrive and the numbers must be
linked to an attendance register with full details of the
applicant. This will ensure no one skips the queue. A queue
marshal must always be available outside to direct applicants
to designated queues. They also need to issue a schedule to
schools for mobile unit visits a month in advance to enable
parents to make arrangements to take leave.
National Treasury has allocated about R266 million to the
department, which will enable the department to appoint more
officials. Most offices operate with insufficient staff. We
urge the department to urgently finalise the filling of funded
posts. I also invite the Minister to visit various Home

 
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Affairs offices and witness the horrible long queues that
applicants are exposed to.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa, IEC delivered the
worst local government elections in November 2021, a huge
number of voters were denied their right to vote for their
preferred candidates, and this was caused by the IEC’s
incompetency. On the registration weekend, the IEC system was
offline, which prompted the details of those who wanted to be
registered to be captured manually and those details were
never captured. This was caused by the use of a newly procured
voter management device which was not tested.
On the voting day, we witnessed lots of voters being turned
away from various voters’ districts because they did not
appear on the voters’ roll. This happened even after the IEC
appeared many times before the portfolio and confirmed its
readiness to hold elections. Many voters were registered in
voters’ districts that are between 5-7 kilometres away from
their residential area - not only that – others were
registered in a different ward.

 
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In closing, the Afrobarometer survey conducted in 2021 on the
community trust rate for the Electoral Commission, and it
shows that it has declined from 69% in 2014 to 36% in 2021. We
expect the Minister to ensure that every voter exercises their
right to vote as enshrined in our Constitution and the first
time voters are just as important. They must never be
denied an opportunity to vote. I thank you.
Ms L F TITO: Thank you, House Chair. The EFF rejects the
proposed Budget Vote of the Department of Home Affairs. We
debate this Budget Vote just a few hours before we celebrate
Africa Day. A celebration that should have one message. A
message of love and reconciliation justice for the continent.
A celebration that should be characterised by an unwavering
call for a united Africa. A celebration that should dement the
removal of colonial borders. And, a celebration that should
call for a united front against new colonial regimes and
puppets of England friends and Western imperialisms.
As the EFF, we condemn the undebated xenophobic sentiments
driven by hate of our African brothers and sisters. We were
not shocked when a Minister and a member of Cabinet, went to
Diepsloot after the painful killing of Elvis Nyathi, holding

 
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hands with vigilant groups assisted by the police, going door
to door conducting illegal raids. Elvis Nyathi did not have to
die for the Minister of Home Affairs to know that there are no
services at the borders and Home Affairs offices are
dysfunctional. Elvis Nyathi did not have to die such a painful
death, stoned and burned like an animal, because crime in
South Africa is out of control, and townships and informal
settlements are a safe place for criminals. One of the many
reasons why the Minister had no right to parade himself in
Diepsloot like messiah, is that Home Affairs officials are
taking money from desperate African foreign nationals who only
want to make an honest living.
The solution to migration is the development of the African
continent and the creation of massive industries that will
create sustainable jobs, not the criminalisation of Africans
who were born on this continent. The past five years,
committee budgets and recommendations reports, have all
lamented the shambolic state of Home Affairs offices. Home
Affairs workers work in disgusting offices. Computers in
Orange Farm and Randfontein centres, don’t work. Sibasa
offices have been without the internet for several days.

 
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In East London, people stand in queues outside in the sun for
hours and sometimes go to Home Affairs without services. Old
people are sleeping outside Home Affairs because their
grandchildren needs birth certificates to receive social
grants. But none of these issues have been resolved. Instead,
the Minister always comes here to ridicule the Members of
Parliament and take cheap shots as if we are in an ANC branch
meeting. Giving an impression that he knows it all and he is
doing something when on the ground. Home Affairs workers are
suffering, and our people are stranded every day at Home
Affairs offices. We must all stop laughing at this Minister’s
cheap shots, especially us as Members of Parliament. The
plight of our people is not a joke.
We know that there is no competency and capacity to resolve
Home Affairs offices. That is why even the proposed budget
cuts are not a problem for this Cabinet. It is now almost two
months since people lost their Identity Documents in the
floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Some cannot get
social assistance because they do not have Identity Documents.
African foreign national who are here with all the required
papers are treated like criminals because this department is
failing to intervene urgently.

 
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The Department of Home Affairs emergency operation, functions
like any other Home Affairs in the country. We must all be
angry at this because it is the lives of people we are talking
about. Deploy all mobile services and employ additional
assistance, including the appointment of graduates in affected
communities to fast track the issuing of IDs, passports and
work permits urgently.
The continuing reliance of SITA in the Public Works without a
solution in sight, is a sign of incompetency of the ruling
party. SITA cannot even help itself, and its systems are
always offline. SITA prides itself on being the government’s
biggest consumer of IT goods and services because it relies on
contractors who inflate prices and do poor work. A state
technology company must have its own capacity, its own
engineers, and inform the country’s technology industrial
policy. The fact that the master plan for the government
printing works hasn’t been finished, it’s part of a plan to
keep taking money from the department’s budget. We reject the
proposed budget as the EFF. I thank you, Chairperson.
Ms L L VAN DER MERWE: House Chairperson, it is another year,
another budget vote debate and yet the Department of Home

 
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Affairs remains broken. So broken is the system, that South
Africans are forced to rise at the crack of dawn, take a day
off work and use their last bit of money to travel to a Home
Affairs Office. Yet, queuing outside a Home Affairs Office for
an entire day is no guarantee that you will get assisted,
never mind getting into a Home Affairs offices ...
[Inaudible.]
To add insult to injury, Home Affairs Offices are perpetually
offline, largely due to ageing, obsolete wireless
infrastructure and all the issues the Minister listed earlier.
Calls and emails go unanswered. And their website is often not
functioning. This department has also not been able to roll
out its services to more than a handful of banks.
This dysfunctional system has opened the door to a variety of
entrepreneurs, including the so-called ‘queue-sitters’, but
there are more elaborate schemes, such as the one at the
Pretoria Home Affairs Office, where, for R500, you can jump
the queue, and get your paperwork processed in 30 minutes.
And, as an added bonus, you are even walked to your car and
offered a cool drink.

 
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So broken is this system, House Chairperson, that Members of
Parliament, MPs, have become admin officers of this
department. Every day, we are inundated with calls from
citizens in desperate need of help with their passports,
identity documents, IDs, birth certificates and permits.
At the heart of this crisis is an underfunded department with
dilapidated offices, staff shortages and vacancies in critical
senior posts. Less than half of the department’s offices have
been modernised. But the biggest crisis this department
presides over, House Chairperson, is a full-blown immigration
crisis.
The reality is, we do not have borders. The current manual
asylum-seeker system has collapsed and has been abused
economic migrants. Corruption is endemic. Syndicates run by
foreign nationals are printing fake South Africans documents,
brazenly using Home Affairs Offices as their base of
operation. Millions of non-citizens enter South Africa, never
to leave again. And let me state that the Border Management
Authority, BMA, is not the panacea to our problems yet – it
will take more years, we don’t have and many more years to
become fully operational.

 
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House Chairperson, so deep and far reaching is this
immigration crisis that reports suggest that Islamic State of
Iraq and al-Sham, ISIS is being funded from our shores by
small businesses run by illegal migrants.
So deep is this immigration crisis that it has relegated South
Africans to the unemployment lines. By Government’s own
admission, some employers prefer employing only foreign
nationals – even those who are not legally permitted to work
in South Africa.
It is our government failures that are turning worker against
worker, destabilising communities, and pitting citizen against
non-citizen. The rise therefore, of groups seeking to tackle
our immigration crisis, is a direct response to our
government’s own failures.
So deep is this immigration crisis that a Russian-born actress
reportedly recently succeeded in lodging a bogus asylum claim
in order to attend a party hosted by a South African
billionaire. This, after alleged political interference to
persuade immigration officers to let her into our country,

 
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failed. That House Chairperson, is a scope of this crisis. A
clear picture of a dysfunctional, broken Home Affairs system.
House Chair, it’s time for our government to table to the
nation a plan of action to fix our immigration system to ease
the legitimate concerns South Africans are raising. I am glad
that the Minister made a commitment in this regard earlier,
but we would need timeframes for this plan to be launched.
Minister, the IFP believes that such a plan must include a
commitment for additional immigration inspectors and resources
for deportations from Treasury. With the prevalence of fake
South African documents increasing, we require a review of all
passports, Identity documents, IDs and residency permits; a
commitment to resolve the backlog in the asylum-seeker system
within 12 months, as well as establishing asylum-seeker and
refugee processing centres at ports of entry. Those selling
South African documents are committing a crime against the
state and must face long and harsh prison sentences.
Minister, a failure to fix your department will continue to
put the safety and security of our citizens and the very
future of our nation.

 
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Urgent action to restore the credibility of the Department of
Home Affairs, DHA, is needed now. Minister, we need to build a
Home Affairs South Africans deserve: one that meets its values
of being people-centre, patriotic, professional, ethical,
efficient, and innovative. I Thank you.
Mr F J MULDER: Hon House Chair, the Department of Home Affairs
is most probably the largest contributor in creating an equal
society in South Africa. The department is a great leveller.
The long queues are where the nation meets, citizens with
little kids, pensioners, people with big cars, people with no
cars, all races, all ages.
People are spending hours and days at local branches of Home
Affairs and often has to return the next day for another
attempt to be assisted. In this department, Hon House Chair,
the legacy of the Zuma and Gigaba era is clearly visible and
it seems as if the department is on the road to nowhere and
state failure once again comes to mind.
What is so complicated about processing, producing and
disbursing identity documents, ID, and passports? If we can’t

 
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succeed with something as simple as this, how can we run a
sophisticated economy and the state?
House Chair, the department is supposed to be the custodian,
protector and verifier of the identity and status of citizens
and other person’s resident in South Africa and to control,
regulate and facilitate immigration and the movement of
persons through the ports of entry.
In June 2021 the processing of applications was gazetted to
resume on 1 January 2022 after no permanent residence permit
applications have been processed since March 2020 when the
COVID-19 State of Disaster was first declared. This suspension
has left ordinary permanent residence applicants in limbo,
with their daily lives being severely affected.
Several applicants have however never, not even once received
any response or feedback from the department even form as long
ago as 2017. The FF Plus receive requests from desperate
applicants on a daily basis. The backlog in applications
standing at more than 33,700.

 
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House Chair, the Constitutional Court deadline of 10 June 2022
to finalise and pass the electoral Bill will still require a
significant amount of time and the department has already
applied for postponement at the Constitutional Court. Yet
another example of noncompliance by the department.
Poor border control and illegal immigration compounds serious
challenges in the provision of basic services and temporary
emergency accommodation. Electricity Commission, Eskom’s
inability to provide electricity also has a detrimental effect
the ability of Home Affairs offices and border control, for an
example at Namibia last week where cars and trucks were being
held for several hours because no fuel was provided for the
generators during load shedding.
House Chair, The FF Plus will be the watch dog on how the
department will manage the Represented Political Parties Fund
doubled sub-programme from R166,8 million in the previous
financial year to R342,1 million in the current financial
year. This increase translates to a 96,26% increase in real
terms.

 
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Over the medium term, House Chair, the Department of Home
Affairs, will have to focus on establishing and incrementally
operationalising the Border Managing Act to secure
international migration, modernising the Information and
Communications Technology, ICT infrastructure to ensure
integrated planning and efficient administration, the reducing
fraud, ensuring the timely issuing of permits and visas to
facilitate economic growth and job creation.
The Hon minister of Home Affairs Dr Motsoaledi today in fact
acknowledged that the department is in trouble and is on a
road to nowhere, which is exactly where the department is
heading to if extraordinary measures are not implemented.
These measures are still not visible or provided for in the
new financial year and therefore the FF Plus will not support
this budged vote Thank you, House Chair.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Hon Chairperson, Minister
of Home Affairs Dr Aron Motsoaledi, members of the executive,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, hon
Mosa Chabane, members of the Portfolio Committee on Home
Affairs, Acting Chairperson of the IEC, Director General of

 
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the Department of Home Affairs and the entire management team,
the CEO of Government Printing Works, the Commissioner of the
BMA and fellow South Africans.
It is always an honour and with a sense of great pride and
duty to address this occasion which deliberates on the
allocation of resources by the Department of Home Affairs to
its key programmes. The deliberations on the allocations of
resources in the form of a budget vote contribute extensively
in ensuring that the limited resources make a great impact
toward improving people’s lives.
These resources will give their new born child their first
form of identity and belonging to our great nation. These
resources will continue to protect the identity of millions of
South Africans. These resources will open gates to millions of
South Africans who continue to travel the world. These
resources will give access to identity documents to our young
people allowing them to grow and fulfil their dreams. These
resources are important for all of us to live because without
these documents we would become invisible.

 
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The Department of Home Affairs carries the responsibility of
ensuring that no South African under any circumstances suffers
the scandal of invisibility. This we do by managing
citizenship and civil registration.
Chairperson, our commitment is to resolve and respond even in
times of crises we were put to the test during the floods that
ravaged KZN, Eastern Cape and other parts of our country.
Thousands of citizens were affected by the floods and more
than a 1000 lost their enabling documents. We had the
responsibility to respond to this crisis in order to normalise
the lives of those affected by having to speedily issue
enabling documents to the victims allowing them to rebuild
their lives.
In order for us to respond to the crisis, we deployed nine
mobile units which have serviced 41 sites, we’ve serviced 2224
citizens for smart ID cards applications and issued 349 birth
certificates on the spot. The re-issue of both smart ID cards
and birth certificates were at no cost to citizens
understanding that this was and still remains a disaster.

 
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It is blatantly untrue that we have not serviced those
affected by the floods in KZN, in fact we have done so and we
will continue to do so.
The disaster situation also displayed the capabilities of our
mobile units to service people in areas which they live taking
both application and issuing of enabling documents. Our mobile
unit fleet has proved to be effective with reaching out to far
flung areas and in order to provide services to people who are
unable to visit our offices.
We are currently operating a fleet of 100 mobile units which
also provide support to high volume offices and offices under
distress.
In the past financial year, the budget allowed us to conduct
2056 site visits. This fleet has been able to service 131 164
clients and school learners with smart card applications in
the 2021/22 financial year.
This resulted into citizens saving thousands of rands in
travel costs that would have been incurred had they gone to
our offices.

 
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The 2021/22 budget allowed us to procure 10 additional mobile
units which are ready for deployment. We’ll be procuring
further 15 mobile units in the 2022/23 financial year. Through
the mobile units, we are better placed to reach out to areas
where there is little or no Home Affairs foot print especially
in rural and remote areas.
The mobile units are also the back bone of our school smart
cards ID campaign which has benefited both urban and rural
schools.
Using mobile units, we have been able to target learners
ensuring that South African learners doing grade 12 sit for
their examinations already in possession of a Smart ID Card.
We have now placed focus to grade 12 which saw the number of
learners starting their grade 12 without identity documents
reduced from 8 187 in 2020 to 2 560 in 2021 academic year.
In the period we visited 1 011 schools working in partnership
with the Department of Basic Education. The additional mobile
units purchased and the ones to be purchased in the new
financial year will extend our reach and greatly enhance our
school ID campaigns.

 
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Chair, this budget will allow us to further our efforts in
issuing Smart ID cards to our citizens. I am pleased to
announce that by the end of the 2021/2022 financial year, more
than 19 million South African citizens had been issued with
smart ID cards. The replacement of the old green barcoded ID
books with the new smart ID cards initiated in 2013, remains
on track, with milestones set for each year.
Chairperson the 2021/22 budget allowed us to issue a total of
2 369 172 smart ID cards surpassing the targeted 1,6 Million.
This was despite the limitations imposed on operations by the
Covid-19 pandemic and its management and preventative
measures.
Of these smart ID cards issued, 966 068 were for first-time
applicants comprising mainly of the youth. It is a significant
improvement compared to the 622 539 issued to first time
applicants in the previous financial year.
It is indicative of the impact we are making in the lives of
young people of our country. Chairperson, we can never do this
without the resources and the budget that we are deliberating
upon today.

 
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The budget allocation for the financial year 2022/23 has
allowed us to increase the planned issue of Smart ID cards
with 37.5% which is 600 000 more than the previous financial
year which meaning in the 2022/23 financial year we will issue
2,2 million smart ID cards to citizens attaining the age of 16
years and above.
We continue to make steady progress towards universal birth
registration. We strive to build a credible, accurate and
secure National Population Register, NPR, with a single point
of entry, within the first 30 calendar days of birth. In
2021/22, we had set a target of registering 700 000 births
within 30 days.
We however surpassed this target by registering a total of
1 018 718 births, of which 800 057 accounting for 78.5% were
registered within 30 calendar days. This percentage is up from
73.7% of the previous financial year. We intend to normalize
early birth registration at above 90% by the year 2024.
Part of the strategy in this regard is expanding our office
footprint in health facilities, in order to bring Home Affairs
services closer to the people. In this way parents can

 
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register their children before leaving the hospital or health
facilities, a service which is more convenient than planning a
visit to Home Affairs at a later stage. This service is
rendered in partnership with the Department of Health.
The number of registration sites where births were registered
during the review period was 803, consisting of 412 Home
Affairs front offices and across all 391 health facilities.
Currently, there are 391 Home Affairs civic registration
offices in health facilities. Our country has 1 445 health
facilities with maternity wards and our plan is to ensure that
the civic registration capabilities exist in all of them. The
health facilities connections are funded through the revenue
we generate from issuing enabling documents and other
activities which were negatively impacted due to Covid-19.
The positive impact of the health facilities is demonstrated
by the 42.3% of births registered in 2021/22 which were done
at health facilities which is an increase from 33.4% in
2020/21. We anticipate that the numbers of birth registration
in health facilities will increase in the current financial

 
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year as we increase the footprint and presence of the
Department of Home Affairs in health facilities.
Chair, we are making progress in strengthening our partnership
with the banks in support of the rollout of the smart ID card
and the machine-readable passports. We currently have 28 bank
branches connected to the live capture system to enable online
processing of smart ID card and passport applications.
Our clients need customised and personalised services due to
the unique nature of their needs hence our technology must
respond to such unique needs. We have clients with names that
have special characters, fingerprints that are damaged by
years of physical labour, amputees due to medical or accidents
and many other challenges.
It is our duty to ensure that our systems respond to such
individuals irrespective of their challenges hence we continue
to enhance our technology to have multimodal biometrics like
facial recognition.
The 2022/23 budget will see us exploring new ways to better
service to citizens. We will procure kiosks that will allow

 
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clients to self-service for passports and smart ID
applications and reprint birth, marriage and death
certificates. The kiosk will be designed in the manner that
will require authentication through biometrics and will be
located in strategic areas to allow access even after office
hours or weekends. The self-service kiosk will usher a new era
in the manner in which we service our clients.
The recently piloted branch appointment booking system that
the Minister mentioned earlier is proving to be the solution
in as far as dealing with the management of queues. The Branch
appointment booking system can be accessed by clients through
the Home Affairs website and is web based. It provides
citizens with the ability to book the dates and time slot of
their choice and is linked to the national population register
for additional security.
The rollout of the system will follow a phased approach and 43
large offices will have the system by 30 June 2022 and 120
medium offices will have the system by 31 October 2022 and 34
small offices by 30 November 2022 and the remaining offices
will continue as walk in services.

 
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The branch appointment booking system pilot currently operates
on a hybrid model in the 25 offices that we have rolled in
because we didn’t want to turn away clients that have not made
a booking and it is only used to book for applications of
passports and Smart ID cards only.
In the future we would like to only service booked clients for
those two products because it is our firm belief that
scheduling an appointment for those two products is possible
compared to scheduling a death or birth registration because
those are occurrences that are not planned for in advance
hence we will continue to take walk ins for those two
services. The citizens will be able to access the Home Affairs
website link to schedule an appointment on their desktops,
laptops, tablets and smartphones.
We are exploring partnerships with more institutions and are
in discussions with the South African Post Office to extend
accessibility of our services.
We are also exploring opening offices in the major shopping
centres in which we envisage a positive uptake, with five of
the malls having offered rent-free space for five years.

 
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I would like to appreciate the work that continues to be done
by our National Youth Forum. The Home Affairs National Youth
Forum continues to be a pillar of support in improving service
quality. The youth forum in the previous financial year
conducted outreach programmes with other youth sectors in
government and in the NGO sector.
In this area, a key activity for this year is the National
Youth Imbizo. They have also led the weekend volunteer program
where specific offices are opened to service learners and the
youth over weekends.
Chairperson, we have the responsibility to ensure that the
budget is managed in a responsible manner that is free of
corruption, a budget must do what it is meant for that derives
value for money. We are pleased that the department achieved
an unqualified audit result in respect of the 2020/21
financial year.
This was the fifth successive unqualified audit opinion for
the department. Matters preventing the department from
achieving a clean audit outcome are the impairment of
receivables and accrued departmental revenue. We do

 
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acknowledge that there is still more to be done in improving
the departments audit outcomes but our ability to maintain an
unqualified audit opinion means we are taking correct steps in
the right direction.
Chair, in conclusion, through our collective commitment and
resilience, I believe that the vision of a modern, secure
Department of Home Affairs that strategically delivers its
full constitutional mandate is within reach.
There are already pockets of excellence. As you may recall, at
the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, our front offices were
confronted with extraordinarily long queues. The East London
large office is an example of our commitment to improve
service delivery.
By voluntarily starting work at 6am along with a few
innovative measures, the Office Manager, Mr Alie van Heerden,
and his team have managed to turn things around.
On a normal day, public members are served swiftly and
efficiently, and the sight of long queues is no longer a
problem for this particular office.

 
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I invite Honourable Members who visited that office a long
time ago to go there now and see how the situation has
improved.
There are many other examples that we can give of officials
who go beyond the call of duty. We wish to applaud all of them
for the good work they are doing.
I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to the Minister, the
director general and the entire management team of Home
Affairs for continuing to working tirelessly in steering the
ship.
We must remember that our task is never to point to problems
but our task is to resolve the complex problems. I would like
to further thank the Chairperson and Members of the Portfolio
Committee on Home Affairs for their steadfast support and
counsel over the years. Through their continued oversight and
valuable guidance, together we can build a future-fit Home
Affairs department. I thank you.
Mr V ZUNGULA: Minister as the ATM we are very happy that you
have demonstrated that you understand that your department is

 
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critical, in ensuring the integrity of the National Population
Register. and the national security risk of having millions of
undocumented and untraceable immigrants is dealt with. We
appreciate that you are aware and dealing with some of the
failures of your department, that often lead to conflict
within communities, of which the government is nonchalant on
the immigration crisis we have.
In addition, Minister, we are calling on you to seize the
moment and utilize the opportunity granted by the courts to
amend the Electoral Act, Act 73 of 1998 to bring the necessary
changes even in the Constitution. Our Constitution must allow
only native South Africans to run for public office. It cannot
be that in South Africa, we run the risk of a British
national, American or Chinese-turn South African running for
public office.
In the absence of government enforcing the law, what is
unfortunate is that people govern themselves and that could
lead to violence and loss of life. Minister ...
IsiXhosa:

 
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... akukho lizwe lingenamthetho. Awungekhe ukwazi ukwakha
ilizwe, ungaqinisanga ingalo yomthetho.
English:
It is unfortunate that South Africa is the preferred
destination not just for economic migrants, but for criminals
and all people who want to abuse our receptive laws. Minister,
there are reports of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS
used in South Africa as a financing outpost through shady
businesses, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and
kidnapping. The staff in your department that commit crimes of
selling our sovereignty must not only be dismissed, they must
be charged with treason. The law must go very hard on those
unpatriotic corrupt outlaws.
Minister, you must protect millions of poor native South
Africans from unfair economic competition with people from far
parts of the world where there was no apartheid. The bleak
reality is that; millions of citizens are displaced from
economic activities in favour of non-South Africans. This
displacement is unsustainable, and it is likely to lead to
tension and violence like we witnessed in Robertson.

 
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Minister you must continue to be unapologetic, bold and strong
in affirming our laws. South Africa is not a banana republic
...
IsiXhosa:
... apho nokuba ngubani na angafika enze unothanda. Qhuba
Mphathiswa
English:
... be loyal and faithful to the people of South Africa.
Affirm our laws, protect our nation from any invasion or
terror activity that can happen on our soil. It is very
dangerous to have millions of people who are undocumented,
whereby if they commit crimes, they can easily skip the
country and South African victims of crime can never get
justice.
Minister, defend the country affirm the dignity of South
Africans who have never enjoyed the economy, land and
opportunities that their forefathers fought for when fighting
for freedom. The ATM Minister will always support you when you
enforce our laws and we will you make sure that ... [Time
expired.]

 
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Mr B N HERRON: House Chair if Eskom is the yardstick for the
state’s operational inefficiencies, the Department of Home
Affairs must sadly come a close second. Having to queue
endlessly to access official documents is not just a matter of
inconvenience, for many in our country, it is more a matter of
life and death. They depend on these documents to which they
should be entitled, in order to access social grants, travel
documents, refugee papers to retain jobs and maintain
livelihoods.
Getting an identity document in South Africa in 2022 should be
more or less as simple as opening a bank account. The reason
it is simple to open a bank account is because, banks
understand that if they make it complicated or unpleasant
potential customers will go elsewhere. The problem for Home
Affairs customers is that there is nowhere else to go. House
Chair, it is poorer people as usual to who suffer the worst
consequences.
A recent site visit by the departmental officials highlighted
the fact that, many people are unable to access social grants
because they don’t have original identity documents. According
to people in the queues, temporary identity documents don’t

 
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work to access a social grant. Before COVID-19, the department
was battling to stay afloat trying to manage a growing backlog
of applications with outdated operating systems, reduced
operating hours and staff shortages. Many people who already
struggled to put food on the table are expected to pay for
temporary identity documents and again later, for the actual
documents. Those who can’t afford these fees have no
alternative, but to wait until they can and so the poverty
cycle continues.
Both the department and SA Social Security Agency, Sassa have
introduced a new online system to book appointments and access
various services. To book an appointment, a person needs to
visit the website and enter their South African identity
number. Online appointments are ideal in a world with proper
infrastructure and management and access to affordable data.
This is not the case for the South Africans living below the
poverty line. Here we want efficient online systems but we
also need efficient and accessible counter space or counter
service. What we have is that, those citizens who are able to
make appointments online, receive appointments two or three
months away. When the due date dawns they get up early in the

 
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dark to hit the queue early, but when they eventually get to
the front they must brace themselves for further delays, and
then must sometimes come back again.
House Chair, South Africans have the right to be able to prove
their identity. We have to ensure that that right, and all the
services associated with being able to identify who you are
including voting, are not denied because an identity document
is unaffordable and inaccessible. House Chair, we must re-
examine the tariffs for Home Affairs services and they cannot
be a barrier. Thank you
Ms T I LEGWASE: Hon Chair, Ministers, Deputy Minister ...
[Sound overlaps.] Parliament, colleagues from the Department
of Home Affairs, fellow South Africans, good afternoon.
One would want to respond to members of the opposition that
can before one who are grandstanding on the platform rather
than giving credit where it is due because every time we are
in portfolio committees and they would congratulate and
applaud the department for the sterling work they’ve been
doing with the department.

 
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But let me not waste time and extend a word of gratitude to Mr
McKay for the sterling work that he has been doing with the
Department of Home Affairs and say we wish him well.
The ANC has invested more time in making sure that those that
they send in government does exactly the mandate that they are
sent to do in the department, especially of Home Affairs.
For instance, Chairperson, section 10 of the Constitution
entails that everyone has inherent dignity and the right to
have their dignity respected and protected. Human dignity is a
central value of the objective, normative value and system
established by the Constitution. A person’s identity is a link
to a person’s human dignity. The core mandate of the
department ensures the realization of this right, which is to
secure and to confirm our identity and citizenship, securing
the identity and status of every citizen.
The Department of Home Affairs ... [Sound glitch.]
[Inaudible.] the lives of citizens from cradle to the grave.
Starting with the registration of infants within 30 days of
birth. After birth certificates, the department issues
identity documents, which enables citizens to do various

 
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transactions like opening an account, applying for business
license and registering for a course ... [Sound glitch.]
[Inaudible.]
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M G Mahlaule): Hon Legwase, you are
fading away. Hon Legwase?
Hon members, we will move on and come back to hon Legwase with
the minutes that she has.
Ms T I LEGWASE: ... [Inaudible.] people are treated with
respect and dignity, even when they travel outside the
country. When people enter into ... [Sound glitch.]
[Inaudible.]
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M G Mahlaule): Hon Legwase, can you
find better connection, I’ll come back to you when you have
done so.
I now call upon hon Jafta!

 
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Mr S M JAFTA: Hon Chair, may I also be allowed to my leave
video off because I’m also struggling here with the network,
please?
Hon Chair, this budget vote is delivered at a crucial time in
our history where illegal immigration, poor border management
control and corruption in the department have become a common
place. With constitutional function of securing borders and
managing our ports of entry, the department has often been
left wanting. Illegal marriages are on the rise and fraud
syndicates collude with Home Affairs officials.
The crisis of identity documents fraud must feature in the
debate about the 4th Industrial Revolution. We can no longer
avoid the scaling up of our processes through biometrics
technology. For the untrained, biometric data include blood
typing, finger printing, DNA analysis, retinal scanning and
voice recognition. We, therefore, need to modernize and
digitize the operations of the department.
There is a continued need to add more countries into our
basket pool of visa-free countries. This will boost our
tourism sector and harness our export potential.

 
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The SA Printing Works is arguably one of the promising
entities of government. Its model could be replicated and
adopted by the Ministry of Home Affairs and also the Ministry
of Transport, which is facing challenges of printing license
cards.
We will, therefore, support this budget vote, hon Chair. I
thank you.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr M G Mahlaule): Thank you very much,
hon member.
Hon Legwase, you are left with five minutes and thirty-seven
seconds. Are you back on the platform?
Ms T I LEGWASE: Hon Chairperson. Minister and Deputy Minister,
members of Parliament, fellow South Africans.
Section 10 of the Constitution entails that everyone has
inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected
and protected. Human dignity is a central value of the
objective, normative value system established by the

 
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Constitution. A person’s identity is a link to a person’s
human dignity.
The core mandate of the department ensures that the
realization of the right, which is to secure and to confirm
our identity and citizenship, securing the identity and status
of every citizen is part of our journey towards the
socioeconomic transformation and the restoration of the
dignity of citizens in line with the Constitution of the
Republic.
The Department of Home Affairs studies the lives of citizens
from the cradle to the grave. Starting with the registration
of infants within 30 days of birth. After birth certificates,
the department issues identity documents, which enables
citizens to do various transactions like opening an account,
applying for business license or registering for a course.
Secured documents like a passport also ensures that our people
are treated with respect, even when they travel outside the
country. When people enter into marriage or civil union the
department is involved. Finally, when people die, their death
are registered.

 
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The civic arm of Home Affairs is the biggest and the most
active for any individual to live a stable, productive,
struggle-free and the beneficial life within the confines of
the law of the country. Such an individual needs the services
of Home Affairs, at least three times within their lifetime.
While keeping with civic affairs of the department, on behalf
of the ANC, I wish to convey our heartfelt condolences to the
families and friends of Namhla Singwa Mtwa, who was murdered
on 21 April 2022 in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. The war on
the bodies of women and children cannot continue. Gender-based
violence must come to an end. The country’s law enforcement
agencies must act and justice must be served. May her soul and
other souls of victims of gender-based violence rest in
eternal peace.
One of the priorities of ANC government is to build a capable
and developmental state. a capable state is necessary for the
... [Inaudible.] service delivery and guide economic
development. A developmental state must be capable of lading,
guiding and mobilizing all social partners towards achieving
national objectives and goals.

 
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The citizens are first branches responsible for providing
secure, efficient and accessible services and documents to
citizens and local residents. It ensures that entry to the
population register happens within 30 days of the child’s
birth. It maintains a number of smart identity cards and it
has a target of three million per year. It also targets to
issue 90% of machine, durable, adult passport through the new
life capture processes within 13 working days.
Children are the shell of the society; if we fail them we have
failed as the society. Those are the words of Justice Sajca in
the case of SS versus presiding officers, Children’s Court,
Krugersdorp and others.
One of their longstanding priorities has been to clean up the
National Population Register, NPR. The NPR, which continue for
historical reason to contain significant and accurate, one of
the key approaches to clean up the NPR has been to persuade
all parents to register their children within 30 days of
birth. To optimise birth registration, the department
continues to improve connectivity at health centres through
its increased footprints plan.

 
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The committee has recommended that the department connects
more hospitals to ensure that more births are registered at
hospitals. This will assist with cutting long queues at the
Department of Home Affairs.
The ANC is committed in fighting corruption. Minister
Motswaledi has established a Ministerial Committee headed by
the former director-general in the Presidency, Dr Cassius
Lubisi, to review all the permit issues since 2004. This is
the year in which the Migration Act came into effect. The
committee will review various permits including all the
permanent residents’ permits, businesses and study visas. IDs,
passports and birth certificates have high value and the
Department of Home Affairs is under attack from local and
international criminal syndicates.
Cybercrime is also on the rise. This is extremely worrisome
because as aforementioned, one’s identity is inextricably
linked to human dignity.
The department has over the years committed to strengthening
the work of the counter corruption unit of uprooting fraud,

 
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bribery and corruption inside and outside the system. [Time
expired.]
The ANC supports the budget vote. Thank you, Chairperson.
Mr M G E HENDRICKS: Thank you very much, hon House Chair. Hon
House Chair, the Minister of Home Affairs has directed his
nine men legal team and directed to me without Al Jama-ah and
his legal team by lawyers who used to divulge Advocate Anton
Loggenberg and Prof Mohammed Haron and Prof Sandile Amina
Khubani in a whole day working meeting to get the certificate
issuing of the Muslim marriage ceremony recognise as an
official South African marriage certificate giving the option
to discusses on what priority system they prefer.
This is a social compact that President Ramaphosa wants. Home
Affairs officials careful analyse the Muslim ceremony and was
impressed with some of the key protocols. The future wife has
to give her concern. She had to give concern on the amount of
the diary and she had the right to be present.
On a more serious note, Al Jama-ah is supporting this Budget
Vote and we look forward to the Minister using some of the

 
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money he now has to follow through and make an announcement
that is still in the heart of 5 million Muslims in the
country. It cannot be that when a spouse in a Muslim marriage
dies the death certificate says never married. The officials
of the Minister were so impressed with the rights of the
future wife that it has in a marriage proposal that it is on
the table to use this as a model for the one Marriage Act
South Africa has on the radar for the Seven Parliament.
Minister, when you conclude this debate, please say something
about this bold rules of yours. Party after party don’t want
to approve this budget. Al Jama-ah will support this Budget
Vote.
The entire Muslim communities will vote. No one must be left
out when it comes to a legal South African marriage
certificate. This cause effect to the human dignity of the SA
Constitution guarantees.
Minister, Al Jama-ah has thrown a life line to your department
to have in place a Muslim Marriage Act by the end of the year
in terms of a court order. We have lost a Private Member’s
Bill which is a Bare Bone by Bill avoiding dispute issues that

 
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has delayed the best efforts of Cabinet to pilot the Muslim
Marriage Bill over the past 20 years.
We wanted a Bare Bone by Bill to get the Muslim marriage
certificate which now may not be necessary. You give us the
good news I asked for earlier.
Those dispute issues can be addressed when you come up with
one seconded Private Marriage Bill in the Seven Parliament. Al
Jama-ah has a second Private Member’s Bill to amend the
Maintenance Act in favours Bill. The Minister stand with woman
so he will make Parliament proud to support Al Jama-al two
Private member’s Bill. Al Jama-ah support the Budget Vote.
Thank you very much, hon House Chair.
Mr A M SHAIK EMAM: Thank you, House Chair, I think we must not
forget the call that we must not shoot the messenger. I think
under the current Minister there has really been a lot of
successes of recent. Yes, indeed there are challenges. This
are challenges that have been inherited by the Minister and
his team.

 
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But, let me start of by commending the Minister and his
Director-General and also not forgetting the staff at Umgeni,
Roda, Bonga, Mkhize and Zandile Dlamini. Minister, your
intervention in many of the matters that have been raised were
dealt to timeously and I must thank you.
Indeed, of course, I want to let you know that the Ukranian,
South African who married the Ukranian have subsequently
passed on but your immediate intervention managed to save the
day. Thank you very much for that.
Let me also side the step. You know, lot of each challenges
that the Department of Home Affairs is facing and if you have
listened to what the Director-General has spoken in Parliament
that there are 9 025 unfunded vacancies. Now what does that
actually tells you? You said you cannot expect miracles from
this department. What I think we should be doing is, the
unions, civil society, Members of Parliament – we should all
come together to assist this department in getting its house
in order.
The ITC system Minister; we want to welcome that although I
must say to the Minister, we do not have a lot of confidence

 
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in Small Enterprise Development Agency, Seda, alone. But let’s
look at some of your success in your department. Look at the
Krugersdorp passport syndicate that you have taken down. Let’s
look at what happened in Mpumalanga and how you have arrested
people there. Let’s look at what happened about the Bushiri
permanent residents about officials in your department who
were arrested. Let’s look at the officials that were arrested
at the OR Tambo.
Let’s look at your intervention on the work permits. Let’s
look at your intervention on the border control. And remember
about my concern on buses moving fast paying R50 is going
through. Look at your intervention. These are all success from
the Department of Home Affairs, which nobody seems to talk
about.
Yes, there are challenges – I want to repeat that again. But
of course, let’s all talk about the good that have been done
by this department. The successes of this department and more
importantly, let’s talk about R1,5 billion on track that the
department intervened on and of course there was a success in
the Goncourt. Why are we not talking about all these things?
So, I think a lot of good things have been done by this

 
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department. This department needs us to work hand in hand with
this department so that we will be able to deal with the
challenges that this department is facing.
And if we are able to do that I think this department will be
more successful in providing services to the people. However,
I want to reintegrate the Independent Electoral Commission,
Minister, Minister, needs a lot of attention.
I think one of the things we want to recommend is that, you
need a conflict resolution committee in the IEC to deal with
conflicts in political parties who spends millions of hundreds
of million rand in court fighting each other. And sadly, the
IEC does not have the capacity to be able to deal with this.
We want to say money is something that you put in a committee.
Thank you very much. The NFP will support your Budget Vote,
Minister. And thank you very much for the good things you and
your Director-General are doing. Thank you.
The ACTING CHAIPERSON (Mr M G Mahlaule): Thank you very much,
hon member. Hon members? [Interjections.] Yes?

 
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Ms C V KING: Is hon King. Hon Angel Andile has left one minute
and that can be added to, hon Roos, please.
The ACTING CHAIPERSON (Mr M G Mahlaule): I wanted to say that,
thank you very much. Hon Roos will have seven minutes now. Can
you proceed.
Mr A C ROOS: Thank you, House Chair. Minister, we were very
appreciative to see Home Affairs mobile units in KwaZulu-Natal
in recent time to assist with documentation to those who lost
them in the floods. I was also very appreciative to see Home
Affairs mobile units in my constituency last Friday, but this
can’t be a once in a lifetime event. What I saw is that we
have to take Home Affairs services to the people. The DA has
been calling again and again for more mobile units to go out
more often, including to schools. Our many young people of
school-going age were part of the crowds taking this rare
opportunity to access Home Affairs services.
The excuses have now shifted from Covid to saying that you
don’t have any money. But that’s not true, Minister, you have
over R9 billion in this budget. You have the money. It’s the
choice of what you do with that money that is going to make

 
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the difference. It’s not only law-abiding, documented foreign
nationals being punished by your inability to control
immigration but South Africans as well.
In response to my parliamentary question in March 2022, you
responded that less than one in 10 South African learners
without ID numbers on the Department of Basic Education’s
database had been able to apply through mobile unit school
visits last year. These are undocumented South African
children.
Now a Gogo pleaded with me last Friday to assist as her
grandchild could not get an ID because the child’s mother was
unable to register her birth, being the child of a Swazi
mother and a South African father. The mother and child face
generational poverty for the simple sin that the father cannot
afford the DNA test to prove that he is the father. He should
be able to access this through an indigent programme. It is
heart breaking to see how this man must feel. This
undocumented South African child is excluded from applying for
a bursary, denied social support and let the abuses of
informal employment.

 
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The DA has highlighted the vulgar amounts spent on rentals of
Home Affairs offices where the landlords don’t even have to
maintain these offices, and this is why you lack money for
mobile units and to provide an indigent programme to such
parents.
A similar get-rich-quick scheme is found at Lindela, where it
costs thousands of Rands per month to house and feed each
illegal immigrant living in prison-like conditions there. Home
Affairs is spending so much on the contract that they can’t
afford the deportation costs, so they eventually release them
onto the streets with an order to leave.
It was the DA who had to fight for the 68-year backlog of
asylum seeker appeals to be addressed, and the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugee, UNHCR, had to come to the
rescue with R27,5 million a year needed to address the backlog
in just 4 years.
Meanwhile, Government Printing Works spends R150 million on
professional services of consultants and lawyers, despite
having in-house lawyers, so that employees with grievances

 
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against executives can be faced with a lawyer when trying to
seek justice.
When the DA has called for the Minister to resolve the issue
of opening on Saturdays, he claims to be powerless to come to
a resolution with the unions. But deals decisively with unions
when they touch Government Printing Works. Do you want to be a
security department? Your choices have left Government
Printing Works, GPW, vulnerable and cost millions. The GPW
lost financial data due to gross negligence by the chief
executive officer that is costing millions in an audit and
reconstruction process of that data, and only after the DA had
exposed this was there an investigation.
The ineffective Border Management Authority, or BMA, drags on,
with millionaire managers appointed while the defence budget
is cut. Carte Blanche finds people irregularly crossing the
border within a few days with a camera crew and yet the BMA
can’t. The Socio- economic Impact Assessment on the BMA Bill
recommended the BMA should be a co-ordinating role, and now we
have millionaire managers with land cruisers and uniforms,
while the senior managers in immigration that were supposed to
be doing that job are still employed.

 
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To hire 200 guards sounds good. Then the Defence budget
earlier we heard that they cannot afford to control the
broader patrols they need. So, who is in charge and who is
doing what? It’s a very confusing situation in our borders.
In the meanwhile, Stockpoort border remains closed. When I
asked why I was informed that Port Health is not there and
therefore they cannot implement Covid protocols. So, who is in
charge of the borders? BMA or a Port Health? Because they are
closing the borders. We have the border officials who work at
Stockpoort sitting somewhere, while businesses in Stockpoort
have closed their doors, the Bureau de change retrenched all
their employees, and vegetable tunnels closed due to no sales
across the border.
Home Affairs’ delays and wrongful rejection of foreigners’
applications are costing millions in litigation. Foreign
investment goes elsewhere and jobs along with it. While you
rack up legal bills opposing even blatantly valid claims, you
refuse to take legal action on officials who leave on
corruption charges and recover stolen money. Once they leave,
they are home free.

 
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Minister, you need to invest in your Agency SA Missions
Abroad. Today, I received the plea from a citizen Arnold who
waited 10 months for her son’s passport application only to be
told that the passport cannot be proceeded because there was
no ID. Now why was the passport application even accepted
because there was no ID. And why was the passport even
accepted without an ID. This is not an isolated incident. It
is happening all the times. The staff don’t know what they are
doing there in many occasions a person waited for many months
only to find out that something was wrong and that they had to
start over and for 18 to 24 months’ turnaround time to process
an ID or passport application from SA Mission Abroad is
disgrace. You are aware of the problem and leave it.
This ANC Home Affairs Budget gives more money to landlords,
Lindela looters, lawyers, and millionaire managers. A DA Home
Affairs Budget would cut the Lindela and BMA gravy trains and
make sure that staff are held accountable to do their jobs so
that more budget is available for deportation and Defence
Force border patrols.
A DA Home Affairs Budget would ensure more clinics have birth
registration services and indigents have access to DNA testing

 
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so that undocumented South African children can access
opportunities and dare to dream.
A DA Home Affairs Budget would sort out IT systems and provide
more mobile units to take services to the people. To go to
schools and communities and get the documents they need to
access opportunities.
South Africans are stuck in poverty without Home Affairs
documentation that proves they belong; that gives them access
to opportunity. You have the money, Minister. Do something
about it. Thank you.
Mr K B PILLAY: Thank you very much, Chairperson, hon
Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, hon Chairperson of
the Portfolio Committee, members of the executive and the
legislature, compatriots, comrades and friends on the various
platforms, the ANC rises in support of Budget Vote No 5 Home
Affairs the last clause of the Freedom Charter says:
There shall be peace and friendship South Africa shall be
a fully independent state which respects the rights and
sovereignty of all nations. South Africa shall strive to

 
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maintain world peace and the settlement of all
international disputes by negotiations – not war. The
rights of all the peoples of Africa to independence and
self-government shall be recognised, and shall be the
basis of close co-operation.
The attainment of Africa unity and independence from the
bondages of colonialism is something worth celebrating. In
this vein, I join my colleagues in wishing all Africans a
happy Africa month and Africa Day for tomorrow.
The ANCs January 8th Statement sets out our priorities for all
ANC members and Cadres which underpins our work during 2022
and among these priorities set are: To defend our democratic
gains against attempts to undermine our constitutional order
and destabilise our democracy; to build a capable
developmental state with an effective and ethical Public
Service that drives the implementation of South Africa’s
transformative agenda and to continue to work for a better
Africa and a better world.
Chairperson, in terms of Montevideo Convention of 1933, the
accepted criteria of statehood are that a state must possess a

 
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permanent population, a defined territory, a government and
the capacity to conduct international relations. The founding
provision of our Constitution affirmed that South Africa is a
sovereign and democratic state founded on the following
values: Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the
advancement of human rights and freedom; nonracialism and
nonsexism; supremacy of the Constitution; the universal adult
suffrage and national common voters’ role; regular elections
and a multiparty system of democratic government to ensure
accountability, responsiveness and openness.
It is a fact that South Africa faces a challenge of porous
borders. The fragmented border management approach has not
assisted the problem. No economy can flourish in an insecure
environment. In Twenty Thirteen, Cabinet agreed on the
establishment of the Border Management Authority or the BMA.
Guided by the National Development Plan, NDP, 2030, the ANC’s
54th National Conference reaffirmed the thrust of the mandate
as outlined in the NDP that South Africa’s borders are
effectively safeguarded, secured and well managed. The
conference accepted the security assessment which identified
four categories of threats facing South Africa which are the
threats to the territorial integrity of the Republic; threats

 
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to the authority of the state; threat to the safety and
wellbeing of the South Africans and threats to the country’s
economic development.
Conference therefore resolved that the Border Management
Authority Bill must be expedited and implemented. The ANC
government took a decision to establish a Border Management
Authority to take responsibility of all functions related to
management of our borders in an integrated manner. The
establishment of the BMA is meant to solve that problem.
Chairperson, it must be noted that the BMA has had many
critics - just like we have critics here today - since its
conceptualisation but today we can note the progress that has
been made. In 2020 and an attempt to create a more efficient
process for all border control and reduce the corruption
element. The Border Management Authority Act was signed into
law by the President. The MBA seeks to eradicate several
challenges currently experienced within the border management
environment due to existing fragment model and provide a
single authority to oversee all forms of border management
control. The BMA model will be implemented at land, air and
seaports of entry. The proposed BMA model will create a

 
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platform for a proper co-ordination between different
government departments, such as the SA Police Service, the SA
Revenue Service, the Department of Home Affairs immigration,
and SA Defence Force to work together in an attempt to clamp
down on, inter alia, the importation of counterfeit and
illicit goods and facilitate improved movement of people and
goods.
We note with appreciation that the President has appointed
both the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner of
operations at the BMA and the rollout process of the BMA is
currently underway. Joint operations have been conducted by
law enforcement agents from various departments, including
SAPS, DHA and the labour inspectors from the Department of
Labour and Employment Services. An Inter-Ministerial Committee
on Migration was also established to have a co-ordinated
approach in dealing with illegal migration, particularly the
illegal employment of undocumented persons in the freight
industry. The recruitment of 200 border guards is currently
underway. The Act requires BMA officers to respect fundamental
rights, including those of vulnerable groups such as
trafficking victims, refugees and asylumseekers. These
developments are welcomed and indeed a positive step in a

 
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direction to a successful implementation to a BMA program,
which was significantly aid in the streamlining of the border
control.
Chairperson, allow me to go onto the Rands and cents. The BMA
will be allocated R67,5 million in 2022-23, R67,4 million in
2023-24 and R71,8 million in 2024-25. The BMA will also be
allocated a further R300 million over the MTF in order to
establish it as a public entity. It is encouraging to note
that the BMA’s budget increases to R150,1 million in the
current financial year from the previous allocation of
R40,6 million. This is an increase of R303,93% in real terms.
The BMA’s allocation which will be utilised for
operationalisation and recruitment of staff. The department
envisages that the BMA will be fully implemented and
operational by the end of the 2023-24 financial year.
The ANC supports the establishment and implementation of the
Border Management Authority which we believe will contribute
significantly to improving the security of our borders and the
management of immigration in our country. We will continue
playing an oversight role over the implementation of the BMA.

 
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On immigration services, the immigration affairs branch
facilitates and regulates the secure movement of people
through ports of entry into and out of the Republic of South
Africa. It also determines the status of asylumseekers and
regulates refugee affairs. The Department reported that it
plans to have 85% of permanent residence visas adjudicated
within eight months for applications collected within South
Africa. This is from the date of receipt of application until
the outcome is in a scan at VFS Centre. The permanent
residence visas referred to here are the: Critical Skills,
general work, and business Visas.
The Government Printing Works, GPW, is a success story for the
country. This is a highly efficient self-funded organisation
that produces, amongst others, secure passports and ID smart
cards. The GPW has positioned itself as a high-security
printer of official documents and contributes to security and
credibility of government.
Chairperson, the natural disaster which befell the people of
KZN and Eastern Cape could not have come at a worse time.
Deputy Minister Nzuza and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zikalala
handed over enabling documents to people who were affected by

 
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the floods in the province. This is well documented and I
can’t understand how members will come here and not be able to
see that.
In line with the BMA roll-out and the African Continental Free
Trade Agreement, ACFTA, the department is planning to develop
and upgrade six of the six land borders in a project known as
the One-Stop Border Post, OSBP. The annual target in terms of
the OSBP in the previous financial year was to issue a OSBP
Policy for public comments and finalise the contractual
agreements with the contracted bidders.
Chairperson, the ANC is steadfast in contributing to a better
Africa and a better world. We are committed to the Africa
Continental Free Trade Area and BMA, which in fact reinforce
one another. The operationalisation of the ACFTA, will
increase trade and increase the trend towards political
regional and continental integration, which will enhance
efforts to promote peace and security in war-affected regions
of Africa.
Let me just stop by having to respond to some of our hon
members this afternoon. We have a multiparty democracy and

 
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opposition parties are present at our portfolio committees. At
these portfolio committees they contribute, support
discussions and decisions and most times congratulate the
departments on the work done. Yet, you choose to come here at
the budget vote and then blame the ANC for everything. Then
what is your role in Parliament? Are you here just to be an
opposition or are you here to also contribute to the solutions
and support departments.
Hon Khanyile, let me remind you that the Home Affairs has
piloted 24 offices and by June there would be a further 19
that gives us 43 offices where the booking system has been
piloted. Now you come and make a suggestion that we should
then start this which has already started and you were present
when this presentation was made. Hon Khanyile does not
appreciate the good work that’s done by the IEC and the
department because actually she’s not present at these
important meetings and so she’s not able to get these reports.
Hon Liezl, you are absolutely correct. Members pf Parliament,
MPs, are public representatives and must interact with the
issues raised by our people. We commend the joint work of the
portfolio committee and the department. Hon Herron if you are

 
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part of the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee you will then
understand and perhaps you can go back and look at some of the
recordings that there was a full presentation on the booking
system. It does not and it will not only be available online
on smartphones but there will also be the USSD platform.
Meaning that you could use any phone to be able to make this
booking at Home Affairs.
Hon Roos, as members, we have a direct access to the Director-
General, DG. We have direct access to the department. In fact,
members would regularly bring forth cases and report this to
the Home Affairs Department they would comeback and report in
terms of where we are. We also have a spreadsheet of the cases
that have been reported and the outcomes of that. So, then to
come here and to grandstand, and then just use the platform to
be able to say this case and this case. There are hundreds of
cases which members bring daily, but do we come back and say
to the public that this has been resolved, the individual
received a passport or this individual received an ID document
after the intervention - no. The DA is antiprogress and we
must accept that.

 
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The ANC government has been and remains unequivocal on this:
Everyone who enters the country lawfully is welcome. Everyone
– citizens and foreign nationals who are in the country must
adhere to the laws of this country. South Africa is a
legitimate and sovereign state. The government of the Republic
of South Africa has an obligation to grant protection to
refugees and other persons in need of protection under a
number of UN Conventions such as the 1951 Convention Relating
to the Status of Refugees. The qualifications of refugee and
asylum status are contained in such instruments.
Chairperson, I must say that we must appreciate the work done
by the IEC, Home Affairs Department and government printing
works because repeatedly we received reports that says under
the circumstances and challenges that the country has faced
both through COVID, lockdown, civil unrest etc that they are
still able to maintain and provide the service that is
required and the service that is necessary.
Let me end in these words of President Ramaphosa in his
Freedom Day speech:

 
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For those seek refuge from persecution and have
legitimate grounds, for any who have entered our country
legally and have the legal right to be here, they will
find South Africa a welcoming place.
The ANC supports this Budget Vote. I thank you.
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M G Mahaule): Hon memebrs, I
am informed that the Minister on his initial allocation manged
to save one minute. I am also informed that the Deputy
Minister also saved one minute, which are the minutes
allocated to the executive. That means the Minister will now
have seven minutes.
The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Hon House Chairperson, thank you
for the extra minutes.
Hon House Chair, in the final analysis in my speech, I
outlined the problems, that I am surprised when some members
here who were criticising just rehashed, as if they have just
recovered the problems themselves. I have outlined them.
However, they rehashed the problems without acknowledging that
we have proposed solutions. If people do not believe in the

 
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solutions that we have proposed, it is up to the. I put
together about 13 actions we are taking to deal with this
issue of downtime – of system of being always down.
I have explained the conditions under which they happen. The
downtime and all those possible solutions. As far as we are
concerned we are tasked and have confidence in the solutions
we have proposed. We are going to implement them without fear
or favour.
Now, the hon Tito said the Minister ridicule Members of
Parliament. I cannot do so.
Firstly, it is not in my nature. It is not in my DNA to
ridicule people.
I am sure you are aware that I work very well with all members
of the portfolio committee. I have never ridiculed them.
However, it is you who sometimes ridicule yourselves. For
instance, you mention here on this platform that indigent
people are not able to get social services in KwaZulu-Natal,
because the lost their IDs during the floods.

 
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Let me give you information on top of what the Deputy Minister
has already given.
The Department of Home Affairs visited 38 sites in eThekwini
where people were affected by the floods. Three sites in the
Ugu and four sites in iLembe. A total of 45 sites which were
visited, physically, to identify people who were having
problems in the wards. In those 45 sites, we served 2 394
people who were affected by the floods.
Amongst which unfortunately, 334, are the ones who have passed
on. They were given dearth certificates timeously. The
documents which people applied for were later on issued by the
premier and the Deputy Minister.
The Deputy Minister visited those sites for the second time to
issue those documents. So, it is not true that we never
service people affected by floods.
For your information, all of them were serviced free of
charge. They were not charged anything.

 
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The hon Khanyile, I think you have already been responded to,
by the hon Pillay, suffice to say do not ever try it again to
try and separate nor divide the Minister from officials,
because we work as a unit and we work very well. That will not
be successful.
Yes, hon Shaik Emam, I need to report to you today that you
were right, after tipping us about the buses. You saw me on
Good Friday going to the borders and we are actually charging
them.
Last week we met with Minister Mbalula and the Cross Boarder
Transport services. Let us get it clear. Nobody will ever
again convey people who do not have documents in South Africa
illegally.
You are aware of the Rincey bus services which we are charging
them R420 000. For we are charging the R15 000, for each
passenger they bring here illegally. We have informed them
that they will never enter South Africa again. We are not
apologetic about that, as the hon Zungula has said. We are
protecting our country.

 
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You cannot just come here, without any documentation
whatsoever in a bus and hide in there illegally, because that
is what was happening.
Hon Roos, yes, you are aware that I gave this report to the
portfolio committee that we want to increase the mobile
transport – that is the trucks. We said we want to double
them. I have actually mentioned it in my speech. Yes, they are
serving our people very well. That is why we like love them
very much.
Hon Roos, you also mentioned the issue of indigents that some
children cannot get IDs because they are indigent. Let me
remind you, the first issue with an ID, it is free for
everybody. It is free. We do not charge anything for an ID
whether you are indigent or not, it is free. However, once you
have lost it and we replace it you pay. Those who are
indigent, we give them waivers. Others, we send them to the
Department of Social Development to write a report.
We do not practice a situation where somebody cannot get an Id
because they are poor. If you encounter such people, please
bring the here. For we have systems to help them and do a

 
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waiver for them. That is why all the people involved in this
disaster, I wrote a waiver as a Minister and I am empowered by
the Act. I wrote a waver that they are not going to be charged
a cent.
So, it is not true that there will be people because they are
indigent they cannot Identities. It does not happen like that.
Hon Roos, I know that the DA has tried everything in their
power to get the chief executive officer, CEO, of Government
Printing Works fired. Please, I have asked you many times,
show us what he has done and put it on the table. You have
never exposed anything at the Government Printing Works.
The tribunal which I put up there after consulting the
President was not because the DA pointed out or exposed
anything. It was because of the systems that were down there,
and the report is out from those experts, eight of them who
were investigating what would happen. Please, come to the
portfolio committee meeting because I want them to read the
report to you, directly on their own.
Hon Herron, let me make this correction the Temporary
Identification Certificate, TIC, is a replacement document of

 
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people who are already on the National Population Register. It
is definitely accepted by the Department of Social
Development.
Hon Liezl Van Der Merwe, there is this issue in the media
about the Russian woman. That woman is not from Russia, she is
from Lithuania. She was stopped when she entered South Africa
without any documents. We stopped her. Our immigration
officials stop her – please praise them for that. We even
confiscated her passport. Yes, we know she went to a party.
That is why we are so angry about abuse of our immigration
system, because she has applied for asylum.
You are aware that last week Friday, she went to court for us
to bring her passport back. The court threw her case out, we
even reported her criminally to the Police. So, we are not
playing games in the Department of Home Affairs for people who
come here regardless of which part of the world they come
from. Then they misuse our systems to come to parties and say
they are refugees and asylum seekers and they are not.
Hon Zungula, yes, once more you would not cringe to protect
the country. Thank you. [Time expired.]

 
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The ACTING CHAIPERSON (Mr M G Mahlaule): Hon members, you are
reminded that the debate on Employment and Labour Budget Vote
and the Police Budget Vote which includes Independent Police
Investigative Directorate and Civilian Secretariat for the
Police Service, will take place at 16:30 on the virtual
platform. That concludes the debate and the business of this
virtual mini-plenary session.
Debate concluded.
The mini-plenary session rose at: 16:08

 

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