Report of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Oversight Visit to Immigration Office, Cape Town International and the Cape Town Harbour on 24 May 2005:
The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, having undertaken an oversight visit to the Cape Town International Airport and the Cape Town Harbour reports as follows:
A . Introduction
On 22 February 2005 the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and immigration officials held a meeting at the Cape Town International Airport whereby a lot of problems affecting the officials, especially the junior officials, were raised and discussed. It was resolved in that meeting that the senior officials should attend to those problems affecting the staff and address them. In respect of this, the committee visited the airport again on 14 June 2005 to get a briefing on the progress made so far about the issues raised during the meeting in February.
This document reports on the deliberations of the follow-up meeting held at the Cape Town International Airport on 14 June 2005 whereby Mr Gideon Christian, Senior Immigration Official at the Cape Town International Airport, and Lorraine Makola from the Department of Home Affairs made verbal presentations before the committee about the progress made with regard to addressing the concerns of the staff. Reflections would also be made on the committee’s oversight visit to Cape Town harbour, which followed the meeting.
B. Procedures
Prior to the meeting, the Committee Secretary sent correspondence to the Department of Home Affairs to inform them about the meeting of 14 June 2005 and the intentions of the Committee. Transport was also arranged for the trip while the immigration office assisted with the provision of the boardroom for the meeting, at the Cape Town International Airport.
The meeting at the airport took place at 10h00, after which the members and the officials proceeded to the harbour for an oversight visit, which began at 14h00.
The following persons were in attendance: Mr H P Chauke: ANC; Mr K W Morwamoche: ANC; Mr M P Sibande: ANC; Ms N B Gxowa: ANC; Ms S V Kalyan: DA; Mr M Swart: DA; Mr M R Mankge: Committee Secretary
and Ms L Martin: Committee Assistant.
The Department was represented by Ms L Makola; Mr G Christians; Mr J Mamabolo and Ms M Mgxashe. Mr A Fraser apologised and sent Ms Makola on his behalf.
C. Findings
This section presents the findings of the oversight visit undertaken over the two ports of entries in Cape Town. It would start with what has emerged from the Cape Town Immigration Office, International Airport, and lastly the harbor.
Cape Town International Airport
Deliberations
The Chairperson of the Committee tabled a list of concerns which had transpired during the February meeting with the immigration officials, and asked the senior officials to brief the committee on the extent they went to address them as they were mandated to do. The concerns raised during the February meeting included the following:
Moratorium on the appointment of staff.
Shortage of staff which affected service delivery.
Low salaries of officers.
Unclear promotion and recruitment policy – influence of racism.
Strenuous shift work – recruitment of more staff as suggested by officers.
Low moral of staff due to lack of feedback on issues raised with the department and parliamentarians.
Lack of uniformity on dealing with issues by management – favoritism.
Inconsistent disciplinary measures.
Lack of transport for staff working irregular hours and promises not honored.
Lack of follow-up and monitoring on policy implementation by the department.
Need for management to assist staff to acquire drivers licences.
Need to employ staff on permanent basis as opposed to contracts.
Late payment of salaries, especially overtime salaries.
Improper communication between officers and senior management and irregular staff meetings.
Inadequate communication between national head office and the regions.
Establishing an academy for staff training.
Responses
It must be noted that the officials, Ms Makola and Mr Christian, were not able to
provide answers to all the questions raised, perhaps due to time constraints. They however pledged that a formal written report or responses to the concerns raised would be sent to the Secretary of the Committee. Below are some of the responses provided by the officials on the questions raised:
With regard to the moratorium on the appointment of staff, the officials stated that the Department has already trained sixty-two new recruits and they were ready for distribution at ports of entry where there is a shortage of staff. It was further indicated that the Department uses a new system to properly train officers before putting them to work. Officers are given uniform training to make them fit for airports, harbors and border ports of entry. The training is three-month theory and three month practical. Practical starts by July 2005 at busy ports of entry.
The committee asked follow-up questions whereby they wanted to know how many immigration officers were required for Cape Town Airport and how many were male and female. In response, Mr Christian indicated that there was a need for 21 officers. He said that currently there were sufficient staffs, but they needed to start planning for peak periods when more officers would be required.
According to the Department, as reported by Ms Makola there is a long-term need for 1000 officers to cover the shortage of staff in many areas. Consequently on this issue, the Chairperson requested the officials to pass the full information to the Committee Secretary together with the new programmes so as to see if the department was dealing with the challenges facing the airport.
On the problem of shortage of staff, which affected service delivery, officials mentioned that the department was intending to appoint nine provincial immigration heads to beef up the system.
Regarding low salaries of immigration officers, it should be noted that the committee was also concerned about this and asked why Home Affairs couldn’t pay immigration officers at the level of their counterparts at the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS). In addition, the Committee indicated that they were not happy about the lack of movement by the department on this.
Responding to the above, the officials mentioned that they have already looked into addressing this wage dispute. They reported that the new recruits would get R76 000, per annum, after training and R43 000 in training. They further promised that the Director General (DG) would take up the issue to the Human Resources, and there was an undertaking that current officers would be upgraded to upper level before the new recruits joined in. They further promised that salary matters would be emphasized in the next Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in September.
Apart from increasing the salaries of the immigration officers, the department is looking at ways and means to declare the work of immigration officials an essential service. The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) would be involved in this matter.
It should be emphasized however that the committee viewed increasing the salaries of the immigration officials in a serious light, as it would help to prevent corruption.
On the question of unclear promotion and recruitment policy – influence of racism,
Mr. Christian mentioned that racism was an issue but they managed to deal with it. An example of a person working on a contract who was racist and as a result his contract was not renewed was cited.
The follow-up question or concern by the committee was that black immigration officials were never promoted. They wanted to know the demographics of officers at the airport – asking if the airport had a plan of representivity at high level. Replying to these questions, the immigration official, Mr Christian, mentioned that the head office does interviews. The unions and the head office oversee the interviews and appointments. The department uses equity policies for the appointment of staff.
The committee felt however that demographics at Cape Town International Airport’s immigration office were still a challenge. This was shown by the fact that top management had only 1 indian female. The committee argued that advertising must be generally spread as to avoid the obvious status quo. They saw a need for racial break down on new recruits, as the airport is the mirror of the country and its population.
The Chairperson stated that he was satisfied that the issue of racism was dealt with and explained by the officials. And he further indicated that the committee would invite Ms Mgxashe, the head of Cape Town Home Affairs regional office, to Parliament to give a briefing on demographic issues.
Concerning strenuous shift work – recruitment of more staff as suggested by officers, Mr Christian and Ms Makola argued in response that shift work was dealt with as more new recruits would be joining the office to assist.
Low moral of staff due to lack of feedback on issues raised with the department and parliamentarians, concerning this the officials reported that the DG had two meetings with staff and one on one interview with immigration officials had shown that they are now happy. The office has also enhanced information sharing with officers using meetings. Mr Christian reported that since the last meeting with the committee the immigration office had had three staff meetings. He argued that it is however difficult to have regular meetings due to shift work, but informal meetings are used instead. Mr Christian asserted that to show that there is a moral change amongst staff, officers also come to work even if they were off-duty when requested to assist.
The chairperson argued that it is important to have regular meetings and the staff needs to be given feedback of the meetings they held with them. Regular meetings help to build interactions amongst staff. The Department also needs to have a strategy to change leadership of Cape Town International Airport and a system of communicating information from the head office to the regions.
On the problem of lack of transport for staff working irregular hours and promises not honored, Mr. Christian reported that the problem was not sorted out yet. The immigration office uses a Kombi so they feared to transport the officers with it because of the taxi violence in Cape Town. On the other hand, Ms Makola indicated that Johannesburg Airport has transport for staff working awkward hours, and the new structure has drivers for that.
Regarding a need for management to assist staff to acquire driver’s licenses, Mr. Christian mentioned that Cape Town immigration officials would be given letters to go to the traffic department to get licenses. The letters would indicate that they are immigration officers. Ms Makola mentioned that in Gauteng, the Home Affairs Department encouraged officials to get drivers licenses and reimbursed them. The department encourages the staff to take initiatives and even bursaries are in place for staff to improve themselves.
On the question of a need to employ staff on a permanent basis as opposed to contracts, the committee discovered that even the head of the immigration office at the airport, Mr Christian, was a temporary employee. The committee wanted to see the Department giving people permanent jobs.
In response to this, Mr Christian stated that permanent posts were advertised and staff members were told to apply.
On late payment of salaries - especially overtime salaries, the official said that the Deputy Director General (DDG) had spoken to provincial administration and that the matter is being addressed. The officials indicated that if the airport doesn’t have money, the DDG undertakes to pay for them.
Responding to concerns over inadequate communications between national head office and the regions, Mr. Christian stated that they have established a directives’ office to ensure that information is cascading to regions. In addition, internally at the airport, they use the GroupWise email system for communication. Emails are sent to everybody and it is an individual’s responsibility to check their emails from the computer. Attempts were also made to simplify the use of English language in the forms to make them user-friendly for staff.
Concerning the establishment of an academy for staff training, it was noted that the academy was not fully established, but training institute is used for that purpose.
Cape Town Harbour
Deliberations
Discussions with the officials at the harbour revealed serious problems affecting the flow of work at that port of entry. These problems are outlined in the next section below. Problems discovered
Shortage of staff. The harbour operates with only 12 staff members. Only one immigration official works at night. Not only this is attributable to the lack of human resources at the harbour, but also because the harbour receives few ships at night, said Mr Tshukudu (Senior Immigration official at the Cape Town Harbour). It was further discovered the night shift is only reserved for men because it perceived unsafe for women to work at night. Lack of computers. The immigration office, at the harbour, does not have computers to assist with the clearing and processing of immigration documents. They still use the old methods of paper files. Lack of control over the yards and fishing vessels. Officials reported that they have no control over fishing vessels and yards. Hence this could pose serious security risks.
D. Committee recommendations
The committee made the following recommendations with regard to what has transpired during the meeting at Cape International Airport:
Department should employ staff permanently.
A need for racial breakdown on new recruits.
Salaries of immigration officials should be increased.
Need for officials to have regular staff meetings and enhanced communication.
Department needs to submit a formal report on how they dealt with the issues raised.
The committee needs to visit the Johannesburg International airport to address its problems.
Regarding Cape Town Harbour the committee recommended the following:
1. A need for technology (computers) to assist with the clearing of documents.
A port terminal should be built at the harbour.
Need to double the staff numbers at the harbour.
Training of officials even on intelligence matters - to improve security - is essential.
New regulations should be put in place to control vessels’ movement.
A need for a formal meeting to be held with the harbour officials.