Address by the Minister of Home Affairs, Naledi Pandor MP, at The New Age/SABC Morning Live breakfast
Deputy Minister,
Director-General,
New Age leadership,
SABC executive and Board,
Telkom Executive and distinguished guests and viewers at home.
I am pleased to be able to address you on Home Affairs matters, specifically the ID Smart Card, identity security and immigration.
I want to begin by acknowledging the cautions sounded by Human Rights Watch in their recent report on South Africa's record contained in its 2014 World Report.
President Zuma, as well as African National Congress (ANC) leadership, have registered their concern about police responses to protests two days ago, and urged the police to protect citizens and to use policing methods that do not cause loss of life. We cannot have protesters dying when exercising their democratic right to protest. We are concerned at the high levels of violence during protests and believe this must also be discouraged.
The Human Rights Watch report refers to xenophobic attacks. I firmly reject the manner this has been reported, as I do not believe we are, as a people, xenophobic. In fact our statistics on asylum seekers and registration of refugees indicate South Africa is fully responsive to its human rights obligations.
We are in the main a country that welcomes those who seek refuge and offers them protection. Of course there have been incidents of xenophobia, and these must be challenged and addressed but I believe it would be difficult to find a country that is as welcoming as South Africa.
Home Affairs is responsible for two key areas of socio-economic policy in South Africa - managing immigration, and protecting identity.
Migration
South Africa is a country open to migration and free movement. We are fortunate in that we are popular tourist destination and we host many high level meetings that bring economic benefits to our country. We have successfully hosted thousands for the FIFA World Cup 2010, the African Nations Cup and currently CHAN. Over the festive season we processed over two million visitors through our 72 ports of entry, more visitors than at any time in our 20 years of freedom and democracy.
Beitbridge is the busiest border post in southern Africa. It normally handles about 9 000 travellers into South Africa on an average day. Over Xmas the numbers soared to 25,000 a day. In December over 600 000 travellers passed through the border post. We managed this without the congestion of 2012 and managed to deal with passengers and goods efficiently.
South Africa is at the economic heart of Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Africa. Our immigration policies and practices have to be updated to take advantage of our national plans for growth and development. We have developed bilateral agreements for efficient and joint processing of travellers with our neighbours. Next month I will publish draft regulations for the 2011 Immigration Amendment Act for public comment. They will propose long term visas for business permits holders, increase the period for intra company transfer permits, and ease access for researchers and creative artists.
We are also working hard to train a new cohort of professional skilled immigration officers. We have taken action to give effect to the ANC call for greater job creation. Our department has initiated a cadet training programme for future immigration officers. We have eighty of them with us today.
Home Affairs modernisation - protecting identity
One of the problems we have is illegal migration and fraudulent acquisition of South African permits by criminals assisted at times by our officials. Our counter corruption unit is working hard to identify all corrupt elements and ensure they face the full might of the law.
Our aim is to make Home Affairs a department that uses technology to strengthen efficiency, eliminate fraud, and secure the identity of legitimate residents of South Africa.
I repeat my call to mainly young women to avoid being tricked into marriages of convenience that lead to heartache and inconvenience. If anyone offers you money to marry them report that offer to the police or our immigration officers.
We have begun work toward developing a framework and legislation that will support the creation of a Border Management Agency to coordinate border management and curb illegal migration. A project office is operational and the new executive will consider proposed legislation early in the new term.
Our modernisation includes the introduction of a smart ID card to replace the green ID book that has been open to fraud and abuse.
The smart ID card is smart in that it is an automated paperless application and issuing process. It utilizes modern biometric technology to record your details on the card. Your facial features are laser engraved on the surface of the card and your biometric details are encoded and locked into a contactless micro-chip.
It has Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) as part of security solution which will allow users and external entities to trust the authenticity of the card itself. Crooks will not be able to easily tamper with the card unlike present vulnerability of the Green ID book..
I am pleased to announce here today that we have added twenty-five offices to the three pilot offices we opened in October 2013. Where these twenty-five offices are will be publicised widely from this week. From 1 February all first-issue applicants and pensioners born in January applying at these 28 offices will receive smart cards and not the green ID book. Offices with digital facilities will now focus primarily on the smart card and passports. We aim to issue 100 000 smart cards by March 31.
I wish to stress the following:
- wait to be invited to apply by month of birth for smart cards.
- invitations will be by month of birth
- sixteen-year-olds and pensioners will receive their card for free
- be patient as we renovate more offices to install digital facilities
In March we will also begin implementing the new births and deaths regulations. We have begun implementation and training for the new Act.
Last year many applicants for permanent residence complained about delays in finalising their applications. We established a backlogs project in October and have processed over 25,000 applications and issued close to 19,000 permits. I have directed our team to speedily process the temporary residence permits that constitute a backlog.
We have introduced cost-effective visa-facilitation centres. We have them in Kenya, Nigeria, India and China. They assist in submission of work, study and business permits. From May this year, we will have 11 new visa facilitation centres in South Africa.
All of this is done to enhance efficiency, promote security and ease migration for South Africa.
In closing, I would like to thank the New Age and SABC for giving us this opportunity to highlight the work of the government and the Home Affairs department.
A special thanks to Telkom for their sponsorship and to all guests and viewers.
