Minister of Home Affairs Budget Speech, response by FF+, DA, IFP & Al Jama-ah

Watch: NA: Mini-Plenary (Debate on Vote 5)

 

DEBATE ON THE DEPARTMENT HOME AFFAIRS BUDGET VOTE NUMBER 5

BY DR AARON MOTSOALEDI, MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

17 MAY 2023

House Chairperson of the National Assembly;

Members of the National Executive;

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Njabulo Nzuza;

Chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, Honourable Mr Mosa Chabane;

Honourable Members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs;

Honourable Members of the National Assembly;

Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Mr Mosotho Moepya and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr Sy Mamabolo;

Director General of the Department of Home Affairs, Mr Tommy Makhode;

Commissioner of the Border Management Authority, Dr Mike Masiapato;

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Government Printing Works (GPW), Ms Alinah Fosi;

Journalists of various media platforms;

Ladies and gentlemen.

In the previous Budget Vote debates, we opted to start with Civic Services which by far is the largest unit within the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). This was simply because Civic Services regulates and facilitates participation of South African citizens in the economy, business, social services and overall political engagement. All of the said activities are impossible without proper identification issued by the DHA.

Today, however, I intend to deviate from this established practice and will first deal with other entities within the DHA which equally deserve recognition.

GOVERNMENT PRINTING WORKS (GPW)

Honourable Chairperson, the ultimate goal is to make GWP a secured printer of choice and a true model of financial sustainable organ of State. This should be the case not only in South Africa but for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and rest of the African continent.

It is with pleasure to announce that the GPW has concluded Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with some SADC countries which are being implemented.

As a result of the said MOUs, the GPW processed the first order to print 300 000 birth certificates for Namibia and 100 000 of which have already been delivered to the Government of Namibia in Windhoek. The GPW is now printing secured vocational certificates for the University of Eswatini and its affiliated vocational colleges.

The said foreign orders will add further impetus to the financial viability of the GPW and they also required the GPW to increase its delivery capacity.

To this end, the GPW has engaged the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to build additional factory space to house machinery. This project will cost R1.1 billion.

COLLAPSE OF THE GPW’S IT SYSTEMS

Members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs will recall that I had to appoint an advisory panel to investigate, inter alia, the collapse of the IT systems within the GPW which led to the loss of sensitive information, including financial information. The management of the GPW is hard at work implementing the recommendations made by the panel. I am assured that no stone would be left unturned in the reconstruction process of the lost information.

BORDER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY (BMA)

The Border Management Authority (BMA) has attained its autonomous status as a schedule 3A entity with effect from 1 April 2023.

The BMA has transferred 1 850 employees from the departments of health, agriculture, environment and Immigration services of the DHA as envisaged in terms of section 37 of the BMA Act. 

In July 2022, the BMA introduced 200 trained border guards who have been issued with certificates as a third law enforcement unit of the country, with the task of monitoring ports of entry and exit.

The BMA is in the process of recruiting a further 400 border guards. 

Honourable Chairperson, I am happy to announce that last week the Minister of Finance has made good on his promise.

He has officially granted the DHA permission to issue RFPs (Request for Proposals) to start a massive redevelopment project of the six busiest ports of entry in the form of a huge infrastructural development and technology injection.

The project will cover:

-           Beitbridge port of entry and exit (Zimbabwe);

-           Lebombo port of entry and exit (Mozambique);

-           Oshoek port of entry and exit (Eswatini);

-           Maseru port of entry and exit (Lesotho);

-           Ficksburg port of entry and exit (Lesotho); and

-           Kopfontein port of entry and exit (Botswana)

This project will breathe into life the much vaunted African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The project is part of the One Stop Border Post (OSBP).  It would be a multibillion rand project whose actual cost will be known after the bidding process has been completed.

PRESIDENTIAL INVESTMENT DRIVE AND THE E-VISA PROJECT

The DHA is an integral part of the President’s Investment Drive to kick start the economy.  Operation Vulindlela Project has been established in the Office of the Presidency and Treasury to review and improve among others the visa regime of the country.

Operation Vulindlela Project produced a report with recommendations which we have accepted and we have posted this on the website of the Department.

The Department has also rolled out the tourist e-visa system to an additional 20 countries.

Countries around the world fall into two categories. There are countries that enter South Africa visa-free but then the rest of the other countries that are not on visa-free entry can apply for tourist visas through the e-visa platform in the comfort of their homes.

In this financial year, we plan is to introduce the e-visa system for other areas such as business, study, general work and intra-company transfer visas. Ultimately all visas would be available on the e-visa system.

THE INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION (IEC)

The IEC is also expanding its technical expertise beyond the borders of the country.  In this regard, the IEC is engaged with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help share its expertise and experience. A visit to the DRC by the IEC is imminent.

Honourable members, a democracy incapable of re-creating itself is destined to impermanence.

Vibrant democracies are those capable of re-defining the terms of political engagements and re-formulating processes of political representation.

Such re-definition moments are also about responding to the pulse of the nation.  The amended electoral system is not merely about the rules and formula for translating votes into seats in our legislative chambers. The revised electoral system is essentially about a nation re-defining processes of political mandates and accountability.

Fellow citizens who do not have an affinity towards political parties now have a window of opportunity for contesting elections as independent candidates, as they have for provincial legislatures.

The forthcoming elections in 2024 will serve as a litmus test for the new electoral system.

CIVIC SERVICES

The DHA is concerned about long queues at its offices.  The causes are many and varied, including the system “downtime” and load-shedding. Relentless efforts are being made to address these difficulties. The DHA cannot afford to throw its arms up in despair.

The DHA has engaged the services of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to devise both short and long term solutions, including the DHA connecting to a different IT system.

DEPLOYMENT OF DHA MOBILE SERVICES TRUCKS

Honourable Chairperson as reported before in this House and other public platforms, the DHA has deployed 120 DHA Mobile Services Trucks and an additional 100 trucks have been ordered.

The number would be gradually increased every year until reaching 1 000. The purpose of the mobile trucks is to:

• Ease congestion at the DHA offices;
• Render services such as issuing and printing birth certificates, identity documents, passports, death certificates and related services, especially in remote rural areas where the DHA offices do not have such capacity and capability;
• Render various services at a much more faster rate; and
• Make DHA services accessible to the most remote rural areas. 

DIGITIZATION

Honourable members, the President in his State of the Nation Address announced, the digitization of the more than 350 million paper records of birth, marriage, death, IDs and passports that stretch back from 1895 in possession of the DHA.  The digitization project will employ 10 000 unemployed graduates in the fields of IT and Documentation Management.

The first group of 2000 unemployed graduates, which had been trained earlier this year, have already taken up positions and are already working.  Currently, an additional 4000 candidates are undergoing an interview process.  Advertisements for the last 4000 will be published by the end of May 2023.

This project will cost R2.4 billion. 

High volume scanners have already been purchased and delivered and are capable of scanning over 100 000 pages per day.

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP AND REFUGEE PROTECTION

Members of the Portfolio Committee are aware that I appointed the Ministerial Committee on the Issuance of Permits and Visas led by Dr Cassius Lubisi covering the period between 2014 and 31 December 2020.

The committee recommended a multi-disciplinary team which has already been appointed. That team is to go deeper into the findings in the form of forensic investigations such that after this we expect arrests, deportations and cancellation of visas, permits and passports irregularly and fraudulently obtained. That will unfold very soon.

Honourable members, the issue of migration remains a burning issue in South Africa and within the global community.

The issue has been debated by the Portfolio Committee and the House on several occasions. The strength of the South African economy in the continent becomes a pull-factor for international migration. The number of illegal foreigners in South Africa is very high.

The DHA has completed its work on the Immigration, Citizenship and Refugee Protection policy framework. This policy framework will be gazetted for public comments soon.

The three pieces of legislation namely, the Immigration Act of 2002, the South African Citizenship Act of 1995 and the Refugees Act of 1998 are obsolete and would be completely repealed.

This applies to related legislation such as the Identification Act of 1997 and the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1992. A new single legislation dealing with immigration, citizenship and refugee protection will be introduced as is now the international trend.

The new legislation will strengthen and set the standard high for appointment of persons occupying bodies dealing with immigration and refugee protection. Procedures dealing with immigration and refugee protection would be tightened to ensure speedy decision-making processes, including appeals arising thereto.

The periods within which decisions are taken regarding asylum and immigration (granting of visas) applications are unacceptably high. The defects in this regard lie in the said three pieces of legislation. The new single legislation will address all these difficulties, including establishment of specialized immigration courts.

The current practice of migrants challenging the unfavourable decisions in long-drawn court processed would be discouraged.

CONCLUSION

Finally, I make use of this opportunity to thank the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Honourable Njabulo Nzuza, the DG of Department of Home Affairs, Mr Tommy Makhode, the CEO of Government Printing Works, Mrs Alina Fosi, the Commissioner of Border Management Authority, Dr Mike Masiapato and the Chairperson of the IEC Mr Mosotho Moepya and its CEO Mr Mamabolo for their unwavering support.

I also wish to thank the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee of Home Affairs, Mr Mosa Chabane, and Honourable Members of the Portfolio Committee for their effective oversight roles.

Honourable Chairperson, I hereby table for the consideration of this Honourable House an amount of R10.863 billion for Budget Vote Number 5 of the Department of Home Affairs.

I thank you.

 

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BUDGET VOTE SPEECH DELIVERED BY MR. NJABULO B NZUZA (MP) DEPUTY MINISTER HOME AFFAIRS ON THE OCCASION OF THE HOME AFFAIRS BUDGET VOTE DEBATE (5)

17 MAY 2023, GOOD HOPE CHAMBER (PARLIAMENT)

Honourable House Chairperson

The Minister of Home Affairs Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi

Members of the Executive

The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs

Members of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs

The Chairperson of the IEC

The Director-General of Home Affairs

The CEO of the Government Printing Works

The Commissioner of the BMA

Fellow Country Men and Women,

House Chairperson,

The budget we are presenting today empowers citizens and residents of South Africa to claim and secure their legal identity without which no one is able to prove their existence and meaningfully interact with the universe. This budget affirms existence of our newly born citizens and, thereby securing the future existence of our mother land. This budget allows our youth access to education and allows citizens access to economic services. The budget we are presenting enables our citizens to travel the world driving economic growth and solidifying our existence and influence in the global world.

The allocation of the department’s resources to its key programmes in this budget vote allows us to contribute immensely to the improvement of the lives of our people. Over the 2022/23 to 2024/25 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period, the indicative allocations grew from R9, 405 billion in 2022/23 to R9, 751 billion in 2024/25. The allocation of these resources allows us to consolidate our gains by continuing to deliver services and products vital to the socio-economic well-being of the citizens and residents in line with the objectives, priorities and commitments outlined in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework of 2019 to 2024.

House Chairperson we have always been prudent with the resources allocated to the department. This is evidenced by the five consecutive Unqualified Audit reports received by the department over the past years.

Over the medium term, the department will continue to focus on securing international migration; modernizing our ICT infrastructure to ensure integrated planning and efficient administration, reduce fraud; and ensure the timely issuing of permits and visas to facilitate economic growth and job creation.

We have over the years spent 100% of our budget evidenced by the latest audited results for the 2021/2022. The additional funding of R 837 Million spread in the financial years 2022/2023 to 2024/2025 received from treasury has allowed us to ease our capacitation pressures in our frontline offices.

The 2023/2024 budget allows us to broaden access to services, expansion of footprint and presence in health facilities throughout the country, and in that regard, we have made meaningful gains for the parents of new born babies to register their children within 30 days, as required by the law.

Despite Covid 19 impacting negatively on our self-financing activities which we use for the health facilities foot print expansion, we are happy that we are back on course and we project to raise just over R 800 Million some of which will go towards the foot print expansion of Health Facilities.

In 2021/22, we had set a target of registering 700 000 new births within 30 days. We however surpassed this target by registering a total of 1 018 718 births, of which 78.5% were registered within 30 calendar days. This percentage is an increase from the 73.7% of the previous financial year. The budget we are presenting will allow us to build towards normalizing early birth registration at above 90% by the year 2024.

Acting on our previous commitments we have rolled out BABS to all of our offices that process Smart ID Cards and Passports. Out of the nearly 7.3 million people who accessed services such as birth and death certificates, IDs and passports from the Civic Branch over the last year, 1.2 million people had made bookings on the Branch Appointment Booking System (BABS). BABS is another example of how we are embracing technology to offer our services to people at their convenience. This is backed by our research, as commissioned though a Customer Satisfaction Survey, which confirms that there are positive developments towards achieving a one-day service in our frontline offices; meaning that most of our clients are now being serviced on the same day without having to return.

House Chairperson, it is important to remember that our Department has come a long way in ensuring that our people receive the best of services and products as directed by the Constitution. Through these gains we have managed to expand our Smart ID drive to schools to reduce the number of pupils who write their Grade 12 examination without an ID Document.

To achieve this we have implemented the Department’s multi-channel strategy, mobile offices continue to be deployed to geographical areas with a population threshold of 40 000 people and below. Most of these are in the rural and far flung areas and schools.  This deployment is intended to assist clients mainly on Smart ID Card applications and other departmental services.

We are currently running with a fleet of 127 mobile units deployed across all provinces.  Out of this number an additional twenty (20) mobile units amounting to R33 448 350 were procured in the 2022/23 financial year and there are plans to procure more than 100 mobile units to the value of R167 million in the financial year 2023/24. This we can never be able to achieve without this budget which allows us to advance better service to our clients the Citizens and residents of South Africa.

By making use of mobile units we’ve been able to target learners, ensuring that those doing Grade 12 are able to sit for their exams having their Smart ID Cards. During this past financial year, we visited 3 254 schools working in partnership with the Department of Basic Education. The additional mobile units purchased and the ones to be purchased in the 2023/24 financial year will extend our reach and greatly enhance our school ID campaign.

In the past financial year, the budget enabled us to conduct visits at 865 sites where there is no DHA footprint as identified by the Hybrid Access Model. This fleet has been able to service 204 317 clients of which 107 861 Smart ID first issues were for school learners, whilst 96 465 were re-issued applications in the 2022/23 financial year. This resulted into citizens saving thousands of rands in travel costs that would have been otherwise incurred if they had travelled to our offices.

This budget will enable us to expand our efforts in the issuing of Smart ID Cards to our citizens. I am pleased to announce that, since the inception of the live capture system in 2013, the department has issued more than 21 million Smart ID Cards to South African citizens. The replacement of the old green barcoded ID books with the new Smart ID Cards action plan remains on track, with new milestones set for each year. Honourable members, the 2022/23 budget allowed us to issue a total of 2 612 328 Smart ID Cards surpassing the targeted 2,2 million as was planned.

Of the 2.6 Million Smart ID Cards issued, 914 367 were for first-time applicants comprising mainly of the youth. This is indicative of the impact that we are making in the lives of young people of our country. This we can never do without the resources and the budget that we are deliberating on today.

The budget allocation for the financial year 2022/23 has allowed us to increase the planned issuance of Smart ID cards by 412 328 which is an improvement as compared to the previous financial year. In the 2023/24 financial year we will issue 2.5 million Smart ID Cards to citizens aged 16 years old and above.

The 2023/24 budget allows us to continue exploring new ways to better our service offering to citizens. The Kiosk with the built in components or devices compatible with DHA system and in line with DHA specifications has been delivered and is on site in our office in Pretoria. The presence of the machine allows for system integration testing between KIOSK user Interface and DHA systems including NPR, HANIS/ABIS, Live Capture and IRE, systems capable of rendering the services covered by the KIOSK.

The KIOSK user interface application has been developed and tested. The application allows for the interaction between the client and the machine during the application of services. The Business Requirements specifications that outlines integration of KIOSK user interface and DHA systems was developed and approved. We envisaged to have system integration completed by end of May and testing of the end to end process completed by the 15th June 2023.

Chairperson, we are exploring partnerships with more institutions It gives great pleasure that we concluded the Menlyn Mall office and it was subsequently opened in the financial year 2022/23, indicative of our commitment to bring services to the people!

As part of our footprint expansion programme focussing on purpose-built and state-owned Home Affairs offices, we are glad to announce that our infrastructure built programme is aligned to the District Development Model (DDM) service delivery model. A new fit-for-purpose office is being built in Taung, which falls under my DDM area of responsibility in the North West Dr R.S.M District Municipality, other offices are under construction in Limpopo - Thohoyandou and Mokopane and KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal. Honourable Chairperson indeed ASIMILE SIYAQHUBA.

As a Department, we have not been spared the challenges imposed by loadsheding,which frequently result in network disruptions. To respond to these challenges, in the 2022/23 budget, the department installed generators in 199 offices. In addition, six offices will be modernised in the current financial year 2023/24, bringing the total number of modernized offices to 205.

House chairperson the quality of our Human Capital is very critical in the improvement of service offering by the department. This budget allows us to continue with our training and re-skilling initiatives to ensure that we have a professional Human Capital base that can support the vision of a modern, professional and secure Department of Home Affairs that is able to serve the public in an efficient and professional manner.

The Surveys commissioned by the department indicate that there is improvement in staff conduct. The department’s Learning Academy through the previous budget was able to achieved the following:

• 303 officials – Trained on Leadership and Management Development.
• 434 officials – Trained on Immigration Services Skills programmes
• 515 officials - Trained on customer care
• 581 officials -  Trained on civic services skills programmes
• 915 officials – Trained on ICT programmes
• 21 newly appointed adjudicators trained for the permitting unit
• 63 officials  to be deployed to missions also trained

All these trainings that improve our Human Capacity are made possible through the proper use of our resources.

This budget chairperson ensures that we continue to play a leading role in the ID4Africa multi-stakeholder movement which promotes digital identity in Africa. South Africa has been leading in terms of its demographic database (National Population Register) as it was discovered upon analysis amongst other African countries that South Africa is way ahead in terms of the building blocks of its family tree. This was demonstrated through its linkage from Civil Registration (CRVS) where the country was able to link its demographics to its biometrics.

South Africa was able to demonstrate through its modernization programme the techniques that lead to the issuance of Smart ID Cards with the latest technology and security that has not been cracked thus far. It is for that reason that South Africa is been used as a benchmark for other African countries in terms of its latest technology. We are way ahead of our peers chairperson more especially when it comes to Civic Registration however chair we are not triumphalist because Martin Luther King teaches us that  “Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change” Hence we strive to do more.

In Conclusion House Chairperson, I would like to thank the Minister Dr. Motsoaledi for his continued leadership, support, and guidance. The Director General Mr. Makhode, and the entire management team of Home Affairs, Government Printing Works and the Boarder Management Authority for the tireless work that they continue to do. I wish to also thank the Chairperson and members of this Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs for your oversight and positive contributions and advise on how we can better improve our service offering. I would like to thank the department’s stakeholders and the public who continuously support our efforts. Honourable chairperson let me thank our frontline officials who have worked tirelessly to implement the mandate of the department.

House Chairperson Home Affairs is too important to all of us to the unborn-the living and the dead and so as members of this House we carry the responsibility to always make sure that this institution works.

I Thank You.