National Assembly
A. Introduction
A delegation of the Portfolio Committees on Home Affairs, under the leadership of Mr Patrick Chauke (ANC), that included Ms M M Maunye (ANC), Mr K W Morwamoche (ANC), Mr W M Skhosana (ANC), Mr P M Sibande (ANC), Mr S R Pillay (DA) and Mr J F Vermeulen (Committee Secretary), visited the North-West province from 13 – 16 October 2003,
The delegation was accompanied by Mr M S Molamu, Acting Regional Director for the North-West province and Mr J R Chavalala, Chief Director of Civic Services.
The delegation visited the North-West province to exercise oversight over the quality and accessibility of rendering civic services to people in especially rural and disadvantaged areas, as Identity Documents (ID’s) and birth certificates are the key to access social security grants. The purpose of the tour was further to directly exercise oversight over the Identity Document campaign that was launched by the Department of Home Affairs in every province. The aim of the ID campaign is to provide all South African citisens with a green bar coded ID document in preparation for the next general elections. The delegation thus monitored the process of ID applications and issuing thereof and the registration of childbirths.
In each area the delegation held meetings with the department, traditional leaders, political parties, the IEC, ward councilors, and other stakeholders. Regional offices, district offices, service points and mobile units were visited to give the delegation an insight into the quality and accessibility of the rendering of civic services in the entire North-West province.
Treasury has set aside R15 million for the ID campaign nationally, of which R1.5 million was given to the North-West province in aid of the campaign. The province is very rural; people are poor and depend on social grants. Especially in the rural areas many people do not have ID’s.
The findings of the delegation are as follows:
B. Monday 13 October 2003
1. Moretele district office
1.2 In Lekotwane there are no computer terminals. Applications have to be sent to Temba to be captured on computer.
1.3 The office has 3302 undistributed Ids.
1.4 8 volunteers work in the office, 3 are from the Department of Health.
1.6 The programme for the ID campaign in the area was drawn up by Home Affairs and submitted to the Council for approval. They also try to cater for special requests for services as far as possible.
1.7 There are only 2 immigration officers in the area.
1.8 Cases of corruption include priests who sell baptismal certificates to illegal immigrants who in turn apply for late registration of birth.
1.9 Another problem that was experienced in the past is that some traditional leaders charged a levy to deliver peoples Ids
1.10 There is a big backlog of those who do not have Ids in the area. In September 4 200 Id applications were received.
2.2 The ID campaign in the area is drawn up in conjunction with the Madibeng council and relationships with stakeholders was said to be very positive.
3. Rustenburg regional office
3.1 The office is structurally totally dilapidated and not suitable for an office of any kind.
3.3 The general area where the public came to apply for documents was not suitable as there were no chairs for the public and the 2 computer terminals were not sufficient for the workload.
C. Tuesday 14 October 2003
1.1 The Mogwase office serves a vast area that includes 70 villages.
1.2 The office is short of staff, as 6 permanent posts remained unfilled. The office has employed 10 volunteers to assist with the ID campaign. The office indicated that it would shortly have 20 volunteers.
1.3 The office has only 2 vehicles that go out as mobile units.
1.6 The office has 4 photographers and the only problem being experienced is that they regularly run out of film.
1.7 The office has only 4 computers that are not sufficient for the workload.
1.8 Cases of corruption are that of a priest and a headman who sold fraudulent documents to foreigners.
1.9 The office had only 197 uncollected Ids. 3 290 ID applications were received during August and September. Since January the office has received 8 960 ID applications.
1.10 The delegation was told that the visibility of the IEC in the area was not very good and also that the IEC registration weekend only produced 1350 ID applications.
2. Mankwe district office
2.2 The other issue that needed to be addressed according to the office management is the confusion from Head Office when sending completed documents. Head Office apparently sends documents to Mankwe when it should be send to Mankweni and vice versa.
3. Madikwe district office
3.1 The office has 13 permanent staff members, 2 service points and 2 mobile units 7 Volunteers are funded by Home affairs and 3 volunteers are funded by other departments.
3.2 The office has to cater for 37 villages and 15 farms.
3.3 The office has only 3 computers, 1 of which does not function properly and there is only 1 printer that works.
3.4 The Council assists with the planning of the ID campaign.
3.5 As a permanent staff member should always accompany volunteers, the delegation was upset to hear that volunteers were sent out alone in mobile units without the supervision of a permanent staff member.
5. Koster (meeting with councilors)
5.1 The area is complex in terms of Home Affairs work as 80 – 90 % of the area comprises farms. It is difficult to reach people on the farms as vehicles are not always available and not all farmers are co-operative.
5.2 There are estimated to be 9000 unregistered voters in the area. The problem is compounded by the fact that there is no permanent Home affairs office in Koster. The municipal area is served by Home Affairs from Madikwe and Rustenburg.
5.3 A system to distribute Ids in the area should also be devised.
5.4 Many foreigners are said to be working in the area and the late registration of births is a cause for concern.
D. Wednesday 15 October 2003
1. Mmabatho regional office
1.1 There are 7 Home affairs offices in the Mmabatho sub-region, 73 volunteers, 8 mobile units and 2 640 unclaimed Ids in the sub-region. Since the start of the Id campaign have received 5 610 ID applications.
1.2 The main problems are lack of transport and lack of staff.
1.4 The delegation was once again told that certain Chiefs charge people a fee when delivering their Ids.
2. Molopo district office
2.1 The quality of fingerprints taken was below standard as the office had no fingerprint roller.
2.3 There were 900 unclaimed Ids in the office.
3.Lichtenburg district office
3.1 Home affairs serve 2 municipalities that include 42 areas.
3.2 The lack of transport makes it difficult to reach all the areas as well as the lack of proper service points. 1 municipality assisted by providing 1 kombi.
3.4 Partnerships with other departments are in place and multi-purpose mobile teams go out to serve the community.
3.5 The payment of photographers was a problem at the start of the campaign but that problem has been ironed out.
4.6 6 volunteers are deployed in the area.
4.7 The delegation was told that relationships with stakeholders were good and that the only real problem was a lack of transport.
4.8 There are only 2 immigration officers that serve the 2 municipal areas. More immigration officers are needed.
E. Thursday 16 October 2003
1. Klerksdorp regional office
No stakeholders were present at 09:00 and the delegation decided to first visit mobile units and then return to the regional office for a meeting later in the day.
2. Jouberton mobile unit
2.1 The delegation arrived just after 09:00 to find that the mobile team was not present at Jouberton. The people from the community were waiting in a long queue and some were there from as early as 06:00 in the morning. The delegation was very disturbed to hear that the late coming of the mobile unit was said to be a regular occurrence. The mobile unit arrived at 10:30 and no reasonable explanation was given why the team was late. The problem is compounded by the fact that the community rightly feels that they are treated without respect and dignity. They have to wait for hours in the sun for the Home Affairs officials to arrive and then some of them are turned away by the close of business at 16:00. It was further alleged that some officials ask for bribes to help people.
2.3 One young lady was crying as the Home affairs officials lost her original documents as they had to take documents to the office to make photocopies as no photocopier was available at the mobile service points.
3 Alabama mobile unit
3.1 The mobile service point at Alabama was very well run and well equipped, but services here were much less needed than at Jouberton where there were long queues of people.
4. Klerksdorp regional office
4.1 At the meeting at the regional office the delegation received an unsatisfactory briefing about the work of Home Affairs in the area. The delegation is of the opinion that this was mainly due to the lack of leadership at the office. The regional representative and the office head was said to be on leave at the time of our visit. When the delegation asked the person who was left in charge of the office how he planned to address the unacceptable behavior of the person in charge of the mobile team that allegedly frequently arrived late at Jouberton, he said that he could not do anything as he and the alleged perpetrator had the same rank. This situation is totally unacceptable and the regional director must insure that accountability by all officials is upheld at all times. The delegation did not engage the staff who were left in charge of the office, as they did not have any decision making authority.
4.2 The campaign was not well co-ordinated in the area due to a lack of leadership and accountability. The delegation was informed of more incidents where mobile teams arrived late at service points.
4.4 The office has 3 mobile units and 23 volunteers. Stakeholders who attended the meeting said that the main problems of the department was that they had too few staff, volunteers and transport to really be effective in the ID campaign
5 Potchefstroom district office
5.1 The office has 10 permanent staff members, 9 are clerks and 1 is an immigration officer. The office manager said that 21 permanent staff member’s e actually needed. The office has 6 volunteers, 30 from Home affairs and 3 from Health. 5 Photographers are attached to the office and no problems is being experienced by them regarding payment for services rendered.
5.2 Major problems were said to be lack of permanent staff, transport and volunteers. Ventersdorp, Fochville and Potchefstroom needed more service point. The office manager further said that Home Afafirs has not managed to reach all the villages and farms around Ventersdorp. Both Ventersdorp and Potchefstroom are vast areas and to reach all the people in the area more volunteers and transport is needed. Only 1 vehicle was allocated to the entire Potchefstroom area.
5.3 The ID campaign stakeholder’s forum was said to meet 3 times per month to plan activities for the campaign.
5.4 As Fochville is near mines many foreigners try to apply for Ids. The delegation once again heard of pastors who well baptismal certificates.
F. General observations and recommendations