Transcript copy: Briefing by Director-General Mkuseli Apleni regarding progress of the National Population Registration campaign and new tariffs

Comments by Director-General Mkuseli Apleni

The Department of Home Affairs, in line with our commitment to clean up South Africa’s National Population Register (NPR), is pleased to announce that significant progress has been made since the launch of the NPR Campaign in the Eastern Cape on 23 March 2010 by President Zuma and Minister Dlamini Zuma.

When we began implementing measures to clean up the NPR, we identified two significant challenges. One was the duplication of identity document (ID) numbers which was manifested in one of two ways – instances where one person had more than one ID number and instances where one ID number was shared amongst two or more people.Another was the identification of ID numbers that did not have corresponding fingerprints which left us vulnerable to identity fraud and theft.

After going through our records the department identified 598 000 instances of duplicate IDs.The Department has now resolved 412 096 cases where one person had multiple ID numbers and 20 971 cases where multiple persons shared one ID number.

All duplicate numbers have since been blocked on the NPR and the Department is now seized with resolving the outstanding 164 933 cases.

Furthermore during the process where the Department was translating manual fingerprint records into the electronic format, 504 250 fingerprints were not converted due to poor quality. To date, we have managed to resolve 127 166 cases and holders of the relevant ID numbers now have their fingerprints on the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS). We are now seized with resolving the outstanding 377 084 cases.

It is imperative to have fingerprints on the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) database for verification since it could result in a duplicate case if the incorrect fingerprints are stored against that ID number.

In our effort to finalise outstanding cases, affected South Africans have been contacted by the department telephonically and through written correspondence. The department will shortly be publishing the names and date of births of the affected people in local newspapers.

We therefore appeal to all South Africans who have been informed that their ID numbers have been identified as a duplicate case, to go to their closest Home Affairs offices so we can resolve these cases.

We take this opportunity to reiterate our appeal to South Africans to safeguard their IDs to ensure they are not vulnerable to theft, loss and in other instances where holders become victims of identity fraud. After all, your ID is your passport to a better life and guarantees you access to services rendered by government as well as other opportunities including employment and further education.

To improve our services the department will open offices from 07h30 to 16h30 in order to prepare properly to render services to clients and to reconcile work of the day. Officials will still however be working from 07h00 to 17h00.

Further the department will be appending the requirements to apply for any documents to all our public areas to Departmental offices to ensure members of the public bring in the correct documents when they want to submit applications.

This brings me to the other issue I would like to brief you on – the increase of tariffs regarding services rendered by the department. As you know, government’s financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Accordingly, new tariffs will become effective on 1 April 2011.These tariffs have been published in the Government Gazette.

We have hereunder detailed the services rendered by the department and the new fees that will apply.

Questions and answers

Question: DG, how did you arrive at the tariff increases? Was there any consultation with the public? I am very sure the economically disadvantaged will not be very happy with these increases? In most cases the increase is at least 100%?

Answer: Tariffs are renewed on an annual basis, this is not the first time we are doing this, so the public is aware of this process. This is why we are saying that they will become effective at the beginning of the financial year. Also, the department does not approve these rates, tariffs are approved by National Treasury.

I also think it is important to understand that the first issue of an ID is free of charge so the poor about whom you are talking or any South African receives their ID free of charge.

You will recall we had an issue of IDs that are sitting uncollected in our offices because people come in and ask us to amend details on their IDs. You must remember that applicants had an opportunity to do this when they applied for the IDs. If you did not do this, the State issued the first ID and must now reissue your ID. We therefore need to have way to recover some of the costs related to this.

We have now even introduced forms in triplicate – I get one, the other is left in the office and one goes to Head office. So, if you come to us and say my name was spelt incorrectly, we have proof of what was submitted.

Reissues are costing the department quite a bit.

Question: DG, I don’t understand the tariff increases for marriages – do you have to pay R140 when you get married because you have to change your surname?

Answer: It is your right to be married so therefore, we cannot charge you when you want to change your surname from a maiden surname to your married one. This is why we are not charging for this.

Question: DG, was there proper consultation with the communities to advise them of the increases?

Answer: Colleagues, on the issue of passports – you will recall that our passports did not have any security features. The passport we are now producing has a lot of security features which is costing us a lot more to produce. But we feel that the amount of R400 is reasonable and the passport is now more valuable and secure.

Government consults through the Government Gazette – it is not always possible to consult on what we should change the tariffs to but we are certainly informing members of the public of the changes to the tariffs.

Question: DG, I assume the crew member certificate is for flight attendants? On the challenges relating to the NPR with duplicate IDs, etc – what will be done in future to ensure that these situations to not arise again?

Answer: Crew member certificates are for airlines, this is more like the smart card we want to get to.

What is happening in the future – once we have every fingerprint in the system, there will be no possible of ID fraud. If however you have ID numbers without fingerprints, there is the opportunity for ID theft since someone can allocate someone else’s fingerprints to an ID number. In future we will be able to eliminate this problem.

We were also recently talking about why we would like to implement Who am I online (WAIO) going forward. In implementing WAIO, we will ensure the department improves things for the public. The implementation of WAIO will ensure these things no longer happen.

Question: DG, you have referred to a process where fingerprints taken manually had to be digitised and some could not be done because of poor quality. What happened with this? Have people been informed on this?

Answer: On this issue, prior to 1994 we were in various homelands, despite being in South Africa. We then had to consolidate all ID numbers.In that process there were fingerprints that could not be taken into the system due to poor quality. This process has been involving and we now that this number left to resolve. We will soon be publishing names and dates of birth of those from whom we need fingerprints to finalise records on the system. This is what we will be communicating to the public. We will begin publishing this information from next week but we need the public to understand why we are doing this.

The other point that is very important is that of IDs. If you ID number is a duplicate but if you do not need anything from the Department, you will not be aware of this because your life will proceed as normal and you will continue receiving services wherever you require it. The day you are looking for a passport you will find your ID has been duplicated.

We have been thinking that we should be proactive and deal with this matter so that people can resolve this before they require services from the department. This is why we are trying to deal with this.

Question: DG, what will the tariff increases do to the books? Will you be turning a profit?

Answer: As a department we do not make a profit – we are providing services to those who require it. However, there are services which are provided for fee, there are others we are providing on a cost recoverable basis. I think we changed the passport in 2008/09. In 2009/10 when we sat with Government Printing Works we had to assess how much it was costing us to produce these passports with enhanced security features. Thus far we have been covering the difference. We are now saying that we need to charge a reasonable fee so that we do not run at a loss.

A passport is your right but perhaps the public can contribute towards the cost of production that is currently paid for by the State can be recovered to some extent.

Question: DG, can you clarify your statement that tariffs increase annually – when was the last one and was the increase?

Answer: The last increase was in 2009/10 because we are now in 2010/11. Tariffs must however be renewed on an annual basis.

Enquiries:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853