“Working together to ensure South Africans value their identity and citizenship”
Honourable Chairperson, Mr Johannes Mahlangu
Chairperson of the Select Committee of Social Services
Honourable members of the National Council Of Provinces (NCOP)
Director General Mkuseli Apleni and senior management of the Department
Distinguished guests
At the outset of my address may I extend, on behalf of our Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini
Zuma, a sincere apology for her absence in the House today due to unforeseen circumstances.
Honourable members,
The theme of this year’s budget speech is working together to ensure South Africans value their identity and citizenship. In this context, that we recall the glorious 1956 march by women led by Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Sophie de Bruyn and Amina Cachalia to the Union Buildings to demand an end to the hated pass laws.
Among these women was the legendary Mama Albertina Sisulu who recently joined the ranks of our departed heroes and heroines. We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Sisulu family for having contributed this jewel of our people to the just cause for freedom, democracy and justice.
Critical to note, however, is that the march to Union Buildings, though an integral part of overall struggle for the emancipation of our people from the yoke of colonial oppression and exploitation, was in essence about the restoration of the identity and citizenship of the majority of our people who were assigned to Bantustans and denied their basic right to the citizenship of the country of their birth.
Accordingly, today as we print new forms of IDs, it is not simply a bureaucratic act but part of the historical mission to restore the identity and citizenship to all people irrespective of race, colour, gender or religious beliefs. As a Department that carries the legacy of the 1956 march, we will not fail them but jealously guard these hard-won freedoms with all the might and strength at our disposal.
Honourable members,
Our Budget speech also takes place against the context of yet another important date in the political calendar of our country - the 35th anniversary of the momentous 16 June 1976 student uprisings in Soweto and elsewhere in our country.
We join millions of our people in expressing our gratitude to the youth of 1976 whose efforts added impetus to the struggle for peace and freedom in our country. The country shall forever remain indebted to selfless sacrifices they made to advance the cause of our struggle.
As a department we jointly, with our honourable President Jacob Zuma launched the National Population Registration Campaign last year which among others focuses on the need for the mobilisation of youths of 16 years and above to apply for IDs.
In this regard, and as part of our contribution to the national commemoration services, the department deployed mobile units to all events organised by the National Youth Development Agency across the country to mark this the 35th anniversary of 16 June. We will continue to collaborate with the National Youth Development Agency and other youth formations to advance the interests of the youth in all our departmental programmes.
It is our conviction that it is critical for young people to apply for IDs upon reaching the age of 16 to enable them to fully participate in opportunities presented by a normal, democratic society, such as access to the opportunity to write their matric examinations which is a vital gateway to a prosperous future. Social services for citizens in need of government help may only be accessed with an ID.
We therefore reiterate our view that an ID is indeed a passport to a better life for all. This is part of ongoing national campaign to restore the identity and citizenship of all our people.
Simultaneously, the launch of the National Population Registration Campaign has witnessed the extension of online connectivity to 189 public and private hospitals as well as other health facilities to enable the registration of all child births within 30 days. Where no connectivity exists, we have deployed our staff to collect registration forms, daily from health facilities, for processing in our offices. We will endeavour to extend this connectivity to many more areas in this financial year. In this regard, we are happy to report to this House that pursuant to this campaign and between April 2010 - March 2011:
- 500 524 births were registered within 30 days
- 445 507 babies were registered after 30 days but before they reached a year old
- 130 284 children were registered after one year but before 15 years old
- 190 091 were registered after 16 years old
All these achievements were made possible by the strategic partnerships that the department initiated in all provinces of our country through the establishment of stakeholder forums in 254 local government structures out of a total of 282 nationally.
We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to members of these stakeholder forums, who voluntarily contribute their time and effort while interrupting their busy schedules, in the noble service of the people, without seeking material or financial reward. This selfless contribution must indeed be emulated in every aspect of our lives.
These forums enable the community to be involved in direct governance processes within the department, help monitor and assess performance of our officials, identify areas where home affairs has no footprint, provide the necessary feedback from communities and thus help improve on the delivery and extension of quality services to our people in both urban and rural areas.
Honourable chairperson,
This month also marks the first anniversary since our country and its people successfully hosted of that beautiful spectacle in the world, the FIFA World Cup on our shores. We are proud to have contributed to the hosting, on behalf of the continent and indeed on own behalf, thousands of football fans from across the world during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In this regard, the department, in collaboration with South African Revenue Service (SARS) launched as part of government guarantees to FIFA, the enhanced Movement Control System rolled out at 34 priority air, land and sea ports of entry. This system enabled the country to facilitate the smooth entry and exit of over two million visitors to our country coinciding with the period of the World Cup.
Critical to note is that the system is integrated and linked to law enforcement agencies, customs and SARS. Accordingly and as part of the legacy of the World Cup, the system remains in place to assist in ensuring smooth immigration processes whilst simultaneously enabling the country to push back the frontiers of crime, fraud and corruption.
The success of the system was again highlighted during the recent investigation which proved that a Somalian killed in Mogadishu recently was not in possession of a lawfully issued South African passport but indeed a fake. The system proved without doubt no movement into or out of the country by the deceased was recorded on our system.
The World Cup further witnessed the introduction of the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) System, the deployment of eight Airline Liaison Officers (ALO) to airline hubs around the world and the development of the historic Event Visa which was extended to countries whose nationals would under normal circumstances require visas to visit South Africa.
As part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the country will maintain these systems to assist us to manage immigration securely and effectively while pushing back the frontiers of crime and corruption. We will most certainly be utilising the same systems to facilitate movement of delegates to the forthcoming 17th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change scheduled for Durban later this year.
Honourable members,
Two months ago, the country once more witnessed successful fourth democratic local
government elections in which the majority of our people were enabled to exercise their
democratic right to vote for candidates of their own choice. This was indeed made possible by the work of the Independent Electoral Commission led by Dr Brigalia Bam and her CEO Advocate Pansy Tlakula.
The IEC is one of the legal entities that support the work of the department. It is only correct therefore, that we extend our gratitude to all members of the Commission for the preparatory work done before, during the successive voter registration weekends as well as the elections day. They have done our country and region proud!
In this context and as part of our commitment to assisting the IEC meet its obligations, we deployed mobile units to areas where the department does not have a footprint during the various dates of registration including on elections day.
On the other hand, staff at government printing works worked long hours to produce the
requisite documents to enable the public to vote. We also opened all our offices to coincide with voter registration weekends and on elections day. We therefore also thank the staff of Home Affairs and government printing works which made time available to assist the people with the issuance of temporary identity certificates and IDs to enable them to vote.
Honourable members,
This financial year we will witness the prioritisation of the secure and effective management of immigration, through amongst others the streamlining of our permitting regime as well as the use of the measures indicated above.
Critical to the effective management of immigration will be our cooperation with the Higher Education and Economic Development Ministries to proactively attract skills from abroad as part of government’s New Economic Growth Path.
In this regard, our department, which plays a facilitating role, has been charged with the
responsibility to facilitate the entry of 50 000 critically skilled professionals in three years to support our national developmental priorities. The development of our own economy is partly a result of the sweat and blood of foreigners who for years have toiled on our mines, farms, manufacturing and other critical areas of our economy.
By addressing these critical skills gaps we will be in a much stronger position to grow the
economy, provide jobs while fighting poverty and under-development effectively. This will be done in conjunction with national efforts to train our people, thus expanding our national skills base.
Accordingly, these critical skills, indentified by the Ministry of Economic Development, include among others engineers - civil, chemical, electrical, mechanical – agronomists, suitably qualified artisans, scientists, senior project managers, environmental experts, ICT specialists, economic planners and others.
Honourable chairperson,
Since 1994, South Africa rejoined the family of nations and took its rightful place as an equal and partner in the global system of political and economic governance. In this regard, our country is signatory to a number of international conventions and protocols.
Accordingly, on Monday 20 June we joined the international community in commemorating
World Refugee Day. The critical challenge arising from these international obligations, however, is the need for us is to balance the need to offer asylum to those fleeing their countries of origin due to some form of persecution or another while maintaining the security and integrity of our borders. This will also require cooperation with our regional partners.
In pursuance thereof, we currently reviewing and overhauling our asylum seeker management processes to ensure adequate capacity and expertise at all levels of the process to ensure its security and efficiency. Simultaneously, the National Immigration Information System (NIIS) utilised for the registration of asylum seekers and refugees is currently being enhanced while backlogs at the adjudication and review/appeals level are being reduced.
The NCOP reviewed and passed amendments to the South African Citizenship, Births and
Deaths Registration, Refugees and Immigration Acts as well as the Municipal Electoral Bill. We are happy to report that the South African Citizenship and Birth and Deaths Registration Amendment Bills have now been assented into law and will become effective as soon as we have finalised the regulations governing their implementation.
Honourable members,
Last year, we successfully concluded the documentation process of Zimbabweans who were residing illegally in our country. In this regard, a total of over 275 000 Zimbabweans came forth to apply for work, business and study permits.
Again this was made possible by the strategic partnership created by the department in the form of a South Africa-Zimbabwe stakeholder forum consisting of representatives of the government of Zimbabwe, non-governmental organisations and various Zimbabwean political formations operating in our country.
With everything remaining the same and all partners cooperating to the fullest extent, we should be able to conclude the process of adjudication of all the applications by the end of July this year.
We have prioritised the improvement of the security of our systems while ensuring effective and efficient delivery of quality services to our people. Accordingly, we are in the process of discussions as to best international practice in the field of immigration and civic management.
Honourable members,
As part of our commitment to building a new Department of Home Affairs, we are steadfastly working towards reversing the trend of qualified audits. In this regard we reiterate our commitment to working towards an unqualified audit in 2011/12, with a clean audit by 2012/13. In this regard, we have strengthened our finance unit to lead our efforts in pursuance of this objective.
We have furthermore introduced a new corporate model which resulted in the refurbishment of 30 offices across the country. The model also includes the implementation of a queue-management system in 13 of our offices which will be rolled out to all other areas in the country in due course. Our offices are now open to the public from 07h30 to 16h30 during week days while on Saturdays we are open from 08h30 to 12h30.
All these efforts require that we increase our human resource capacity. We will thus endeavour to increase this support particularly in filling our frontline office posts in this financial year. We are happy to report that, with the exception of a few, we have fulfilled our mandate to fill all management posts.
We will continue to ensure the implementation of the principles of Batho Pele in among all our staff, particularly in the frontline areas to ensure a friendly and caring Home Affairs experience for all our clients. Our people who have suffered for so many years in the hands of apartheid civil servants deserve better treatment from our entire civil service.
Our war on fraud and corruption continues unabated with a number of officials arrested in joint operations between our Anti-Corruption Unit, our Immigrations Inspectorate on the one hand and the South African Police Services Hawks Unit on the other. In this regard, we extend our gratitude to this and other law enforcement agencies for assisting us in our efforts to rid our department of the scourge of crime and corruption including cyber crime.
On the other hand, the Film and Publications Board, will finalise its turn-around strategy this year. It is envisaged that this will enable the institution to deliver a more efficient and functional organisation with simpler and more convenient business processes for distributors and clients.
It is to the credit of the Film and Publications Board that, following the unfortunate events at Jules High School, they have intensified their efforts to advocate responsible use of different communication platforms in schools and also highlight the dangers related to the use of modern technology to prevent child abuse and sexual victimisation of children. Accordingly we extend an invitation to members of this House to the flighting of the film entitled Trust this afternoon at the BMW Pavilion at the Waterfront.
The Government Printing Works on the one hand has enabled us to produce the Crew member certificate, currently being utilised by pilots and crew members of our national flag carrier - the South African Airways. This production has now laid a firm foundation for us to prepare for the production of the Smart-ID Card which will be rolled out in due course.
In conclusion, may we extend our appreciation to members of the NCOP for affording us the opportunity to address the house today and their ongoing support for the work of the department, while expressing our conviction that the house will find fit and proper to support our budget vote.
I thank you.
